... just a couple more thoughts: It was interesting pulling together the immigration post, because when I started searching, I discovered two things - almost no real discussion of the INS online, and the fact that discussion of the immigration proposal is happening almost entirely on the right-side blogs.
I noticed this a lot during the last elections - Foley was discussed mainly by lefty blogs, while terrorism scares got a lot of play on the right wing ones. Few people read a lot of both sides, I've found, while I do; and I don't say it to brag (all that reading is a little tiring, to be honest), I say it because I'd like to encourage you (all of you) to do more of it (it can be tiring, but it's also rewarding).
In any case, I think the point is to pay attention to who's passionate about this, and I'd say from my observations this weekend that conservatives have made destroying this bill their next mission - they are furious with Bush, Jon Kyl and are calling McCain's presidential bid over. On the left I saw mostly cautious, generic support, largely built on the fact that this would do something for the "12 million" (a number, by the way, that has a lot of guesswork in it).
Ezra Klein was about the only one I saw who put anything down on paper, and at the end of Friday he said congressional sources were saying that the pressure to get something done and on the President's desk would get this through. I don't buy it, when conservatives have surely spent the weekend screaming (GOP party conferences in Georgia and South Carolina this weekend featured clear expressions of dislike for the bill's provisions), John Cornyn is already dropping out of the coalition that created the bill, and a host of people are promising amendments, which could derail the whole thing.
And that's just the Senate. Given Nancy Pelosi's and Rahm Emanuel's comments that they won't get it through the House without 60-70 Republicans, and the fact that the House may pass STRIVE, a completely different piece of legislation instead, things don't look good.
And all I have to say about that is, Thank God.
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