Nationwide, people locked arms and sang, "Ding Dong, the wicked bill is dead." At least the immigration bill seemed to die in the Senate yesterday, getting only 46 of the 60 votes needed to bring it to a vote. (See who voted and how.) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had said if the bill failed to get the 60 votes, he would remove it from further consideration (Washington Post).
I watched the debate on CSPAN. Several senators said their phone system was jammed with calls from angry people wanting to kill the bill -- and possibly the senators who supported it. I wondered if Jack Abramoff had reached out from behind the prison walls and persuaded Ralph Reed to orchestrate a massive phone tree -- like they did for Abramoff's casino-owning Indian client(s).
Not that they needed to. Rush Limbaugh could have easily mobilized a few hundred of his 10+ million listeners against the bill he called the "Comprehensive Destroy the Republican Party Act."
Maybe, Rush was right. The bill did cause massive clashing among Republicans, many of whom felt President Bush betrayed them by pushing the bill. (Mercury Rising) It didn't help that Bush publicly insulted conservatives and Republicans for opposing the bill.
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