Kennedy, Graham, Reid, Kyl, Bush to try to revive Senate illegal immigration amnesty bill

Like Jason or Michael Myers, the "Grand Bargainers" behind the Senate's illegal alien amnesty bill are promising to bring it back within a few days or a few weeks. If you want to prevent this from happening, it's within your power to do so. All we need is one well-known amnesty supporter to be roundly discredited and that will send a loud and clear message to the rest.

[Sen. Edward Kennedy says] "We are not giving up. We are not giving in."

..."When it is recognized by the American people that the Senate has not acted (on immigration), I believe there is going to be a wave of support for what we have been trying to do," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who also is on the negotiating team.

...But Republican Sens. Specter, Jon Kyl, Lindsey Graham and Mel Martinez were all upbeat after a vote to end debate failed 45-50, failing to reach the 60-vote threshold to move toward final passage.

...Graham said he talked extensively with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and is confident the bill will return...

..."There are ways we can do this," Reid said later. "There can be an agreement on the number of amendments. Hopefully we can do that in the next several weeks. We're very close."

Kyl, the chief Republican negotiator, told reporters on Friday that he believed a list of about 10 amendments would satisfy the concerns primarily on his side of the aisle, and that those could be considered in no more than three days on the Senate floor...

More here, including sports analogies and this Kyl quote:

"Both sides can point fingers as to who was to blame for not allowing enough amendments to get up... I don't think we should engage in that blame game. I'll take the responsibility myself. I didn't do a good enough job of either working with the Democratic leader or my Republican colleagues to get everybody together and get it done. But that is the weakest of excuses given the historical significance of what we're talking about. If all we're talking about is 12 or 13 amendments and a couple of days of work in the Senate, think about it. Who would allow that opportunity to be wasted, to dissipate, to wash away?"

White House adviser Dan Bartlett says Bush wants the bill to come back too.

UPDATE: Sen. Ken Salazar says it might come back next month, that if it doesn't it might be five more years, and:

"Failure on immigration reform is not an option...For this Congress and Washington not to deal with immigration reform is an abdication of responsibility."

Immigration2007a · Fri, 06/08/2007 - 08:58 · · Importance: 1