Bush lobbies Senate on immigration
By Stephen Dinan
President Bush visited with Senate Republicans behind closed doors yesterday, promising that he will follow through on border security, pleading with them to give his immigration plans a second look and trying to overcome hard feelings that arose from his recent charge that opponents are guilty of trying to "frighten people."
"We've got to convince the American people that this bill is the best way to enforce our border," Mr. Bush said after an hourlong lunch with the senators. "I believe without the bill that it's going to be harder to enforce the border."
The bill is stalled for now, the victim of a collapse last week, and Democrats say Mr. Bush must prove that he can deliver 20 votes in support of the bill before they will put it back on the schedule. Mr. Bush is struggling to win those votes and has come under fire from Republicans who say he must first do more to prove he is serious about enforcement.
One idea that seemed to gain immediate traction among the Republicans was for Mr. Bush to send up a new emergency-spending bill to fund border security.
"If we're really going to get support for this bill from the American people there's got to be some restoration of trust," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Georgia Republican, ...
Immigration fantasy land
Today's Washington Times Editorial
President Bush seems to have learned all the wrong lessons from the collapse last week of the Senate immigration bill. Instead of going back to the drawing board and coming up with an immigration bill that actually improves border security, the president went to Capitol Hill yesterday in an effort to revive the "compromise" pushed by Sens. Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican. To get an idea of how surreal immigration politics have become on Capitol Hill, Mr. Bush has been receiving and acting upon some unsolicited political advice from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ( whose poll numbers are even lower than the president's).
On Monday, Mr. Bush received his marching orders from Mr. Reid: ...
