June 12, 2007

No Word Of GOP Movement On Immigration After Bush Visit

Republican Senate leaders presented an upbeat report of their meeting with President Bush on comprehensive immigration reform this afternoon, but gave no indication of any deals made that might persuade more members of their party to back a compromise bill.

"The details of how we get from where we are now to the finish line is not something I'm prepared to discuss today," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, addressing reporters outside the Senate chamber.

Bush seemed to second McConnell's earlier criticism that Majority Leader Harry Reid prematurely pulled the bill off the floor after it failed a test vote for debate last week.

"I would hope that the Senate majority leader has that same desire to move the bill that I do, and these senators do, because now is the time to get it done," said the president, flanked by McConnell, Minority Whip Trent Lott, and border state Sens. Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Texas). "The status quo is unacceptable."

Later, in a separate news conference, Reid retorted that he could only bring the bill back to the floor when Senate Republicans got "their own act together." Repeating a warning made in a letter he and other Democratic leaders sent to the president yesterday, Reid said, "Fourteen percent of Republicans supporting this bill won't do the trick."

The "grand bargain" proposal is the result of a bipartisan compromise, with Republicans including John McCain and Democrats including Edward Kennedy leading the charge. While some left-wing and immigrants' rights groups oppose some aspects of the proposal, the loudest antagonism has come from the border-enforcement right, which has denounced any path to citizenship for illegals as amnesty.

But Bush and the bipartisan backers of the bill insist that no new legislation is also tantamount to amnesty. Bush is particularly determined to make good on his election-year promise of immigration reform; as a former governor of Texas and something of a pioneer on the Hispanic vote among Republicans, the issue is one he seems to identify with on a personal level.

The president attended the GOP lunch for the first time in five years, attracting a larger than usual horde of cameras and reporters.

Of Bush, Lott said, "He made it clear to me and others that he doesn't want just any bill, a bad bill, but he thinks this is an issue that needs to be addressed."

"The president was very emotional in describing his feeling of the importance of doing this," McConnell added. "I don't think there was anybody in the room who was not impressed by the strength of his conviction."

Bush also heard from senators who support a proposal by Georgia Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson for a border security supplemental bill that could grease the wheels for the immigration bill.

Bush vowed that the "White House will stay engaged" on the issue. But as Reid has noted, with most Democrats having voted to send the bill through, the onus is on the GOP's leaders to muster up at least 15 converts on the proposal. More specifically, those Republicans will have to be convinced that pushing through an imperfect reform bill is worth the ire of an impassioned base.

-JANE ROH, with Brian Friel contributing

Posted at 2:05 PM
Posted to: Bush Administration, Congress, President Bush, Senate
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