Novak Slams McConnell on Immigration Reform Failure
Joe Sonka July 2nd, 2007
Mitch McConnell, fresh off of going AWOL from the Senate debate on the immigration reform bill before switching his vote to nay, gets smacked around by Robert Novak (proud winner of Jon Stewart’s Douchebag of Liberty Award).
I asked one of the few conservative Republican senators who stuck with President Bush on immigration to assess how Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell handled the issue. Asking not to be quoted by name, he replied: "If this were a war, Sen. McConnell should be relieved of command for dereliction of duty." Not only did the minority leader end up voting against an immigration bill that he said was better than the 2006 version he supported, he abandoned his post, staying off the floor during final stages of the debate.
Yes, Mitch knows he has a fight in KY in 2008. Too bad hiding under his desk isn’t going to work for him then.
McConnell was among six switchers who voted no after the 40 senators needed to kill the bill were recorded. Another late switcher was Sen. Sam Brownback, seeking the Republican presidential nomination as the candidate of the right. He voted for the first cloture motion on Tuesday to keep the immigration bill alive and put out a news release on his presidential Web site explaining his vote. On Thursday he voted again for the bill. But when it became clear the measure had failed, he changed his vote from aye to nay and scrubbed his earlier statement from the Internet.
Unlike McConnell, the second- and third- ranking Senate GOP leaders — Trent Lott and Jon Kyl — stuck with the bill despite intense pressure in their respective states of Mississippi and Arizona. So did Lindsey Graham, facing threats of Republican primary opposition in South Carolina next year. So did John McCain, despite damage to his crumbling presidential campaign.
"This isn’t a day to celebrate," McConnell said in his postmortem. Indeed, Republicans drove another nail in George W. Bush’s political coffin and undermined hopes for winning the growing, and winnable, Hispanic vote. Contending that the time "wasn’t now" for immigration, McConnell added: "It wasn’t the people’s will. And they were heard." He was blaming Republican failure on his fellow citizens, which seldom works in politics.
Ouch.
And as far as Mitch’s little last minute "switcheroo" on the vote, I’m sure no one will remember that, right?
