Steve Dinan reports in today’s Washington Times that “Immigration effort lacks 2nd backer from GOP,” the sole Republican being McCain’s “little jerk,” Lindsey Graham. I mean, really, if you can’t get Dick Lugar to sign on to an amnesty bill, what are your chances?
But it could be that the Dems don’t really care about getting another Republican sponsor. In catching up with last week’s news (I was back in the Bay State for spring break), I came upon an interview with Bob Menendez,who told the Star-Ledger the following about passing an amnesty bill:
I think the time to get it done is in November, right after the elections. I’m being very pragmatic. I think there are a bunch of people who are retiring who would cast votes (because) their heart and their intellect tell them it is the right thing, but their politics might have told them no. They are free to cast votes that we might not normally get. I think it’s a propitious time to get something done if we have presidential leadership. That’s what I said to the president two weeks ago when I was at the White House with him.
This scenario of a lame-duck amnesty bill is a favorite of some of my more paranoid friends on Capitol Hill but I always dismissed it as a fantasy. Maybe I need to reconsider.