Tom Curry has written a good article on the defeat of the DREAM Act. Mr. Curry thinks one of the lessons people should take from this defeat is that the immigration issue has staying power:

Illegal immigration remains at a legislative impasse, and that may be a good thing for GOP chances since the party’s base in the South and West tends to be vehemently opposed to any accommodation with illegal immigrants.

In his post-vote assessment, the Dream Act’s chief sponsor, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois said, “In a campaign year, it is a very difficult issue. If it’s a tough this year, it’s tougher next year.” Some senators, he said, “are running scared” on the illegal immigrant issue.

They should be running scared. Illegal immigration is costing states, counties and school boards tons of money. When an illegal immigrant visits an E/R, we pay for it in the form of higher premiums. When illegal immigrants attend school, taxpayers foot the bill in the form of higher property taxes, higher tuition and bigger state budget outlays.

Naturally, Dick Durbin started spinning this the minute it was defeated:

“Switchboards light up, the hates starts spewing, and people get concerned, to say the least,” Durbin told reporters.

It hasn’t dawned on Sen. Durbin that the reason why the “switchboards light up” is because we don’t like the additional costs and security risks that come with the illegal immigrants. It also hasn’t dawned on him that support for making citizens out of illegal immigrants is strongly opposed by Republicans, Democrats and independents. If Sen. Durbin continues saying that opponents to amnesty are haters, then I’ll point out that he’s talking about Republicans, Democrats and independents. Here’s proof that I’m right:

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who is up for re-election next year, said the Dream Act was “huge, huge” as an issue on the minds of people in his state. “People are very upset, they’re outraged; it’s like amnesty, it’s virtually the same” he said after casting his “no” vote. Mail, phone calls, and e-mail on the issue pouring into his office were “off the wall,” Baucus said.

Most Montanans, he said, believed the bill would have given an unfair benefit to illegal immigrants. Baucus’s freshman Democratic colleague from Montana Sen. Jon Tester also voted “no,” as did another freshman Democrat, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Southern Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Robert Byrd of West Virginia all voted against the Dream Act.

It’s impossible to make the case that this was a party line vote. It wasn’t close to a party line vote because 12 Republicans voted for cloture while eight Democrats voted against cloture. Sen. Durbin can peddle that spin wherever he wants but people won’t believe him because his spin doesn’t match up with the facts.

Check this out from North Dakota’s Kent Conrad:

The bill would have allowed illegal immigrants, if they passed background checks and became permanent legal residents, to qualify for lower in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities, a point cited by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D, who voted “no.”

Conrad explained that from his constituents in North Dakota, “I was hearing, ‘wait a minute, this is more generous than what we’re doing for people who were born in this country.’ And it’s certainly commendable to want to give this kind of educational assistance to people. But how can you justify that when we don’t do it for people who were raised in our country?”

From North Dakotans, Conrad said, “What I hear is, ‘look, you’ve got to secure the border. That’s got to be priority number one.’”

The question seems to be changing. The new question that people will demand an answer to is this: When will Washington listen to us?

It’s apparent that people think that politicians are tuning them out. That’s why their approval ratings are nearing Nixon/Saddam territory. If Washington politicians keep ignoring We The People, We The People will retire them involuntarily. This issue is why I firmly believe that it isn’t an anti-Republican election as much as it’s an anti-Washington, anti-corruption election.

Technorati Tags: Dream Act, Immigration, Dick Durbin, Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Amnesty, Enforcement, Border Security, Mary Landrieu, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. Senate shies away from immigration issue…

   Legislation to give some children of illegal immigrants a path toward legality failed a crucial Sena…

   Trackback by Unpartisan.com Political News and Blog Aggregator — October 25, 2007 @ 12:41 am

1. I was glad to see Barbara down here yesterday. Imagine that, a Senator from California, actually in California!

   Ive been to Washington enough times to know that there definately is a different world beyond the west end of Connecticutt Avenue.

   It’s called the real one.

   Comment by T. A. Gray — October 25, 2007 @ 10:29 am

2. And it isnt just costs and security thats pissing eveybody off.

   Its things like:
   -watching the Mexican Consul General on our TV, tell us we must allow Mexican trucks on I-5. Just where in the hell is OUR government official, and why isnt HE talking to us about it????

   -seeing a mob of high school kids who (given the preoccupation of our schools with putting rubbers on bananas) probably would have a hard time finding Washington DC on a map of the United States, all of a sudden becoming international lawyers tramping down the street waving Mexican flags.

   But we’d be happy just to see our own governemnt enforceing the immigration laws laws it already has.

   Comment by T. A. Gray — October 25, 2007 @ 11:51 am

3. “Switchboards light up, the hates starts spewing, and people get concerned, to say the least,” Durbin told reporters.

   In other words, people who disagree with him, or are concerned, are hate-spewers.

   Thanks for clarifying that, Turbin.

   Comment by Carlos — October 27, 2007 @ 8:44 am