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McConnell remains behind the scenes on immigration |
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By Manu Raju
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Posted: 06/28/07 07:41 PM [ET] |
With his caucus bitterly divided and the Senate descending into procedural warfare, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) stayed away from the Senate floor as the most sweeping overhaul of immigration laws in 21 years hung in the balance.
Facing the biggest challenge of his leadership tenure, McConnell has largely chosen to work behind the scenes and instead allow a bloc of conservatives to spar with Republican supporters of the bill.
Conservatives also railed all day on the process used by Senate leaders to bring the bill to the floor. But Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and other Democrats wasted no opportunity to point out that the arcane procedural tactic, which limited debate to a pre-negotiated list of 27 amendments, was worked out with McConnell.
“It wasn’t done by me, it was done by us,” Reid said, referring to the Republican leader.
Yesterday the Senate moved methodically through the list of amendments in advance of a decisive vote today to shut down debate and move to a final vote on the bill’s passage. The success of today’s vote depended largely on how many amendments were considered and which were agreed to during yesterday’s debate.
Since the bipartisan negotiators and the White House reached a deal on the bill last month, opposition on the right has been growing. That has put Republicans who are up for reelection, including McConnell, in an uncomfortable position as the White House has launched an all-out push to give President Bush a major victory in his final months in office.
McConnell’s absence from the fight highlighted his lukewarm feeling on the bill. He is neither an advocate nor a staunch critic of the bill, and has not said how he would vote on the underlying bill. The senator voted against efforts to shut down debate earlier this month, but voted Tuesday on a motion to proceed to debating the bill. Last year he voted for the measure that passed the Senate but failed to clear Congress.
Publicly, McConnell has tried to limit talking about the issue. Reporters who pepper him with questions about immigration legislation often are greeted with silence. And recently he cut short a news conference on energy issues once questions turned to the immigration bill.
Analysts note that McConnell — who recently said next year’s reelection race will be the toughest of his career — is in a “lose-lose” situation. If the Senate passes the bill, they say, conservative critics will argue that McConnell helped facilitate its passage. If the bill stalls, Democrats will use the bill’s failure to aid in their characterization of the senator as an
“obstructionist.”
McConnell was absent as several of his Republican colleagues highlighted the stark differences within the caucus over the process and the contents of the bill. In a heated argument, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), an opponent of the bill, yelled at another critic, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), for objecting to an amendment authored by the Iowa Republican. Sessions, in turn, blamed Reid for standing in the way. Reid said he was trying to allow people to debate their amendments all day.
Then Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) took the floor and blasted the Grassley amendment: “If you want to make sure the bill does not work, then adopt the Grassley amendment.”
Despite his absence on the floor, McConnell was engaged closely with the floor proceedings, holding member-level meetings through the course of the day, his aides said.
That was enough to infuriate conservative critics of the bill, who say he was not doing enough to stop Democrats from railroading the bill through the Senate. The conservative opposition, led by Tom Coburn (Okla.), Jim DeMint (S.C.) and David Vitter (La.), argued they were not given ample time to review substantive changes to the underlying bill before they had a chance to vote.
“It’s patently unfair,” Vitter said. “We have the right to understand what is before the Senate. We have the right to read it.”
McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the senator wanted to move the bill through the regular channels.
“For whatever reason, the Senate Republican leader is not playing an active role in protecting the rights of his caucus,” said Brian Darling, director of Senate relations at the Heritage Foundation. “I think he’s staying out of the fight, and allowing others in leadership to cut deals.”
Still, some Republicans concerned about the process came to McConnell’s defense yesterday.
“He’s doing the best he can with a divided conference,” DeMint said.
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