It has been evident for quite a while that mainstreet Democrats, including many of their most loyal constituencies, opposed the Senate bill by wide margins. It has been a question of if and when that might begin to show up in votes. Today, 15 Democrats joined 37 Republicans for a stunning 53-46 turnaround and vote against cloture on the Senate immigration bill. The NYT has some background on a few of those Democrats:

“I hope this never wears off, but I like to keep my word,” said Ms. McCaskill, part of a triad of moderate Democratic freshmen balking at the proposed immigration overhaul and complicating efforts by President Bush and Senate leaders to pass it this week…“This was a big issue in Missouri,” Ms. McCaskill said. “I had a consistent and clear message during the campaign, and I feel obligated to act on that.”…

Her compatriots in opposition are Senators Jim Webb of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana. All three represent Republican-leaning states and are breaking with their leadership and most of their Democratic colleagues on the legislation, whose fate in the Senate could be determined on Thursday after a day of votes on amendments left the outcome up in the air on Wednesday.

The Republican Party has been deeply split by its differences over immigration. But Democrats have their own fault lines, and the opposition from Ms. McCaskill, Mr. Tester, Mr. Webb and eight or so other Democrats could be critical in determining the outcome.

Unlike some veteran liberal Democrats who say the measure would be too harsh on illegal immigrants or would cost some American workers their jobs, the three freshmen are lined up against it for much the same reason as its Republican opponents: that it would not do enough to stop the flow of illegal immigrants across the border.

“I do hear from my constituents, and I have to tell you it is overwhelmingly do not touch it,” said Mr. Tester, who said opposition to the bill came from Montana residents of all political stripes, from liberals to conservatives to libertarians. “This is a clearer signal than we get on the war in Iraq.”

The stance of Ms. McCaskill, Mr. Tester and Mr. Webb also indicates how powerful the issue can be for those lawmakers who most recently faced the voters on the polarizing subject of what to do about illegal immigration and about the millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. It is a turn of events that could be repeated in the House if the immigration legislation clears the Senate. Many newly elected Democratic centrists from swing districts who helped their party regain the majority in the House have already expressed grave reservations about the bill.

This issue is not how such a a bad and unpopular bill — and one that had so little respect for its own enforcement — got this far. The issue is how many other bills that are bad, unpopular, and poorly designed for enforcement fly below the radar and get passed every year, without the special attention applied to this particular piece of legislation. It is evident that one of the things that really bothered legislators during this process was the lowly public’s daring to involve itself so deeply in the legislative process of the elite.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Law, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.