[tag]Republicans[/tag] on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue went to great lengths to put [tag]immigration[/tag] on top of the domestic policy agenda this year — and now they’re cutting and running.
President Bush’s push for a sweeping overhaul of immigration laws was dealt a major blow Tuesday when [tag]House[/tag] Republican leaders announced they would hold public [tag]hearings[/tag] on the Senate bill that they strongly [tag]oppose[/tag].
The plan, unveiled almost a month after the [tag]Senate[/tag] measure passed, is the latest sign of reluctance among the GOP House leadership to try to negotiate a compromise bill that would include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Conservatives say that element — a central part of the Senate measure — is the equivalent of amnesty.
House leaders insisted Tuesday that they still hoped to negotiate with the Senate. But the schedule for the hearings, set for July and August across the country, makes it unlikely that the two chambers can reach a final agreement before the November elections.
This is a setback for, well, the entire Republican machine. The president heavily invested what remaining shreds of his political capital he could find, and like the rest of his policy agenda, he came up empty. Again.
One could reasonably make the case that waving the white flag on the issue is a good thing for the GOP. After all, by taking the issue off the table for the rest of the year, congressional Republicans will no longer have to fight each other or the White House shortly before the elections.
But I’m not buying it. Republicans intentionally made immigration a key issue and vowed to “reform” the system — and then they couldn’t [tag]deliver[/tag]. Indeed, it’s a bit of a pattern for the GOP-dominated government. They put Social Security privatization on the agenda, but failed. They put “lobbying reform” on the agenda, but failed. They put an anti-gay constitutional amendment on the agenda, but [tag]failed[/tag].
The debacle over immigration was embarrassing, but not unique.
And what about these summer hearings House Republicans are playing up?
The focus of the summer hearings and the schedule were uncertain Tuesday as Republicans suggested that they would be used both to explore the content of the Senate bill and to survey public opinion on the issue. But it was clear House Republicans intended to use the forums to try to expose what they saw as failings in the Senate bill and to build public opposition to that approach.
“The House bill is very different than the Senate bill, and I think we want to have a clear understanding of what is in that bill,” said Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House majority leader.
In other words, House Republicans want to go around the country this summer and bash the [tag]president[/tag]’s preferred policy while reminding voters about their harsher, less-politically popular, and more draconian “reform” measure. Let’s see how that works out for them.