Of the People, By the People, FOR the People

If I had been the Democrats, I would have handled the illegal immigrant amendment by voting against it, perhaps with Weiner giving a speech about how disgusting it is that the Republicans want to penalize people who willingly sacrificed themselves for their fellow man at a time of great need, followed by another amendment that would grant permanent resident status to the affected immigrants. The Republicans would look like idiots if they voted against that, not that that's stopped them in the past.

The Republicans don't realize that the vast middle in this country isn't that opposed to immigrants, illegal or otherwise. I've been beat up on Conservative forums for saying that illegals ought to be able to get state drivers licenses, which would mean they could buy insurance. In general, I'm not willing to pay for tracking down illegals unless they do something that gets them arrested.

I'm not a hard core Republican, many of the party's planks are pretty stupid. I've voted Republican in the past, because their views were less offensive than the Democrats. That's becoming less true these days, as both sides get more stupid. The Republicans have let the religious right take over, while the Democrats still think that the only solution to any problem is more government involvement and higher taxes. What's a centrist libertarian leaning voter to do?

Oilacct wrote, "Why were the Democrats afraid of the normal procedure? They have enough votes to kill any amendment they don't like, and to pass the bill regardless of the opposition."

Because in the annals of Washington Machiavellian politics, nothing is ever that simple...or as they appear to be at first glance. Here is a synopsis of the underhanded dirty politics and brinksmanship as described by the Christian Science Monitor:

"Republicans decided earlier this week to introduce an amendment to the Zadroga Act that would prevent any first responders who were illegal immigrants from collecting the health benefits. There had been no serious discussion previously about whether any 9/11 responders were illegal immigrants. But getting Democrats to vote in favor of benefits for any potential illegal immigrants would anger voters in conservative districts. Voting against it would anger Hispanics – a key Democratic constituency.

Republicans wanted to set up a lose-lose situation for Democrats." And did.

The equivalent of setting up the Democrats to answer the unanswerable question, "When did you stop beating your wife?"

The Democrats, not to be outdone, turned the tables on the Republicans: "The two-thirds threshold forced Republicans either to willingly eat humble pie [and vote for the bill which they actually supported and 15 Republicans co-sponsored] or to oppose the bill and be open to charges that they were abandoning the heroes of 9/11."

So the Republicans were upended by having their own tactics turned on them and now own the failure of the bill's passage, with the heroes of 9-11 suffering and dying from debilitating attack related illnesses as the byproduct victims/losers in this partisan political battle.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/0730/Anthony-Weiner-rant-reveals-why-nobody-likes-Congress

acct said, "Why were the Democrats afraid of the normal procedure? They have enough votes to kill any amendment they don't like, and to pass the bill regardless of the opposition."

Come on, you can figure this one out. The Repubs, from day one, block and block and block by offering amendments by the HUNDREDS on every bill, then vote against it anyway. The Dems wanted to show that. So...we now have Republicans ACTUALLY VOTING AGAINST FIREMEN AND POLICE WHO WERE HEROES AFTER 9/11 (the sacrosanct day invoked by Republicans in all campaign ads) just to hand the Dems another defeat. They are so focused on taking down Dems that they stupidly played right into their hands on this one. Here's the Dems campaign ad...

"Peter King (or insert Repub's name here) voted against the NY York fireman who's dying from lung disease after trying to save his Co-workers. Call Rep. King (insert Repub's name here) and tell him you're ashamed of him."

Wouldn't want to be a Republican in NY right about now.

If the bill had been brought up under the normal procedures, a simple majority vote would have passed it. The majority chose a procedure that disallows amendments by the minority, but requires a supermajority (290 votes) to pass, and that didn't happen.

Why were the Democrats afraid of the normal procedure? They have enough votes to kill any amendment they don't like, and to pass the bill regardless of the opposition.

"He actually remembers who he was "hired" to represent." Indeed? Would that be me or you, because I think the country is so polarized it can't be both.