Jun 26 2007
Live Blogging The Immigration Vote – It Passes!
Updates Below (roll call)
Right now the Senate is voting on a bill covering some kind of legislation on unions. Following this vote will be the vote on Immigration. America is at a cross roads, as is the GOP. The far right has put a lot of emotion and anger into this issue. It has permanently divided the GOP into two camps which may not reconcile after this vote. The language has been toxic and exaggerated and left too many marks to be put aside easily. So here we sit on one of those historic moments. Let’s see how it goes.
Update: They are starting the role call vote. 60 votes are required in the affirmative to let the Bill move on to the votes on the 24 amendments being proposed.
Update: It will be easier to simply list the “nayes” as they come up and update the post, so keep checking as names are added (there will be typos as the vote goes on, will try and clean them up later).
OK, they did the “ayes” first (and reading fast!) and here is what I heard:
The Ayes:
McConnell, Graham, Lott, Kyl, Martinez, Brownback, McCain, Snowe, Warner, Webb, Allard, Reid, Murray, Cantwell, Whitehouse, Specter, McCulsky. Ensign, Hagel
The Nayes:
Chambliss, Isaackson, Demint, Byrd, McCaskill, Bunning, Shelby, Sessions, Dole, Dorgan, Stabenow, Cornyn, Rockefeller
Folks, they are reading to fast so these are just key names I am pulling out to indicate where they are coming down. Not a comprehensive list yet. But it is clear there are dems and reps in both camps. The amensty hypochondriac wing is not as big is some think it is.
Update: Final tally: Ayes 64 Nayes 35! It passes!
Clearly the amnesty hypochondriac wing of the GOP is not that big. Even with a lot of liberals and democrats voting ‘naye’ the bill still passed the 60 threshold – by a much larger margin than I predicted.
Now we go to the sausage making stage and see if the poison pills can be kept out while strengthening the bill. Good start though. And I expect all the hypochondriac to applaud this wonderful demonstration of the American democratic system and El Presidente Jorge’s efforts to take the tough stances and get us at least to the point there is a chance for progress on this festering issue. I cannot wait to see the accolades from the GOP on how “American” this result is.
Update: I will have the final vote tally up when it comes out in about 30 minutes or so – so check back!
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Landrieu (D-LA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Only 24 Republicans out of 49. Interesting.
One more interesting item from Ed Goes and Immigration support. Turns out the more Americans hear about what is in the bill the more they LIKE IT:
When the details are fully explained, an overwhelming majority of Americans favor the immigration bill being debated in the Senate, Ed Goeas, president and CEO of The Tarrance Group, tells me.
The Tarrance Group is a Republican polling and strategy firm that works for Rudy Giuliani, 47 congressmen, 10 senators, and five governors.
Without referring to the Senate bill itself or using terms like “amnesty” that are open to interpretation, the firm polled Americans on whether they would favor its components.
“When we walked through the series of measures that are being proposed, we got 77 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Democrats, and 70 percent of independents supporting it,” says Goeas (pronounced GO-as). “There’s not a piece of research I’ve seen that, if you explain each one of those pieces, you don’t get a majority saying they approve it.” Several issues are at play, Goeas says.
Hat tip to Harold Hutchison posting over at Mac Ranger’s.
Update: NRO is wondering why this debate feels bad? Maybe because they poisoned the GOP well so badly???
AJ
Just for example to take someone on the Dem side, Barbara Boxer is a known strong opponent for the bill and she voted to revive it by your roll call of nays.
The entire reason they were able to bring the bill back is they retitled it essentially making it a re-submittal of the same bill with some minor changes. The changes are not being publicized at all. Then they made a deal with some opposing senators that if they voted for cloture, they would bring up those senators amendments in the VERY limited debate. Out of the amendments that were dealt in, there are enough of them that will not pass that will kill enough support that this probably will not pass the senate.
When you authority comes from a CNN anchor you know you have flown over the cukoo’s nest.
Lou Dobbs is a CNN anchor? I never watch CNN, saw this on C-span. Just thought what he said rang a bell.
reader2007
The radical hissyfitters supporting the bill crying and moaning when they perceive Pres Bush calling them names
kindly provide the link to me ever, ever saying one word about Pres Bush calling names.
You don’t have to be dishonest to make a point.
I am for keeping comments.