That Pill Is Poison

I'd been taking Ezra's word for it that the Dorgan Amendment sunsetting the proposed guest worker program wasn't a poison pill. Fawn Johnson in CongressDaily PM, however, seems to have the goods:

"I'm at the point that I don't think we can get enough agreement to fix the bill, so my preference is to stop it and start over. So if it hurts the deal, I'm for it," said DeMint. Asked if he was trying to kill the bill with his vote on the Dorgan amendment, Bunning said, "I've been trying to kill it for a long time."

That said, Johnson also reports that negotiators are still claiming they'll be able to pass a bill. She also says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney "said he could not support the immigration package even with the Dorgan amendment."

Comments

John Sweeney's opposition = "more conservative whining"?

Posted by Fred | June 7, 2007 5:29 PM

Don't you know that my yet is the gold standard yet?

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I have no idea what Dorgan's motivation was, but the wingnuts who suddenly became pro-labor were certainly trying to use the amendment as a means to torpedo the bill.

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The Upper Hand

And may I say that watching today, if a bill gets passed, Dems should write the bill any fucking way they in conference.

Bush just wants a bill. He'll sign anything. If Congressional Republicans don't go along with whatever comes out of conference, it's a loss for Bush.

Seriously, conference should write a Dem wish list bill and dare anyone to kill it. It's a win-win situation.

Posted by Petey | June 7, 2007 5:59 PM

Edit:

"I'd been taking Ezra's word for it that the Dorgan Amendment sunsetting the proposed guest worker program wasn't a poison pill."

Don't you know yet that my word is the gold standard on all topics?

Posted by Petey | June 7, 2007 6:02 PM

"And may I say that watching today, if a bill gets passed, Dems should write the bill any fucking way they in conference."

That's why millions of us who are opposed to this bill have been calling and e-mailing our Senators. Everyone knows that the best chance of killing the bill is in the Senate now, and that Dems can gut any pro-enforcement amendments in conference.

Posted by Fred | June 7, 2007 6:19 PM

Why would Dems gut pro-enforcement amendments?
They are not anti-enforcement they just don't hate Mexicans and other brown people.

Posted by Vaya con Dios | June 7, 2007 9:06 PM

"Why would Dems gut pro-enforcement amendments?"

Less enforcement = more unskilled, uneducated Mexicans migrating here. A few years down the road, there will be political pressure to give these illegals amnesty too (what are we going to do, deport them?). Tens of millions more uneducated, unskilled Mexican-Americans = tens of millions more Democrats.

Of course, this won't really help the poor, unskilled, uneducated Americans already here, but it will help Democrats win elections.

Posted by Fred | June 7, 2007 9:13 PM

By the way,

They are not anti-enforcement they just don't hate Mexicans and other brown people.

Can you make a distinction here between Mexicans and "other brown people"? I'd be happy to have another million Vinod Khoslas or Mohnish Pabrais as American citizens. George Bush, Jeb Bush, Ken Mehlman, etc., would rather have another 40 million underachieving Mexican immigrants, because they are deluded to think these will be GOP voters.

Posted by Fred | June 7, 2007 9:17 PM

Love the title.

Posted by lowellfield | June 7, 2007 10:48 PM

Big business is using legal and illegal third-world immigration to drive down American wages.

The marriage of big business and multiculturalism is the worst thing ever to happen to the American worker. Liberals can side with big business and use multiculturalism to appease their conscience.

I know so many people now who are making less money because of legal and illegal immigration, and not only in lower-paying fields, but also in nursing, engineering, medicine, and computer programming.

Democrats have betrayed the Middle Class in the hope of acquiring more voters, but the price: the transformation of the U.S. into a third-world wasteland.

I would never vote for someone like Barack Obama who actually is supporting the third-world invasion of the U.S.

Posted by Traditional Democrat | June 7, 2007 10:55 PM

Traditional Democrat hits the nail on the head!

The democratic party has turned away from working class issues and replaced them with the liberalism of the cultural elites (abortion, affirmative action, open borders, "tolerance", etc.), the kind of liberalism that doesn't threaten the bank accounts of the rich.

Posted by kafka | June 7, 2007 11:32 PM

First the good news: The immigration bill is toast for now. Second cloture vote failed, so the Senate Majority leader whose four adult sons are lobbyists is pulling it for a while.

Traditional Democrat:

I know so many people now who are making less money because of legal and illegal immigration, and not only in lower-paying fields, but also in nursing, engineering, medicine, and computer programming.

My sister is a nurse doing agency work. She's usually able to land jobs at $55-$60 per hour. If she does a temp gig for three months, the agency usually throws in free luxury housing. I can't say she's hurting from immigration.

Posted by Fred | June 8, 2007 1:29 AM

I agree that Traditional Democrat hits the nail on the head!

If the Dorgan amendment is a "poison pill", that only proves that both parties are badly poisoned with corporate cheap labor interests and if this bill fails it is a victory for the average American.

Both parties love to muck things up with "cultural" baloney to distract us from the important stuff.

Posted by Marsha | June 18, 2007 10:51 AM