Apropos of talk of “phased compromise” — Tancredo won a straw poll at last night’s Lincoln Dinner in Michigan’s Macomb County. “Amnesty Sam” Brownback came in last. And it’s not just the Republican core — the public is on fire about this and to say, as Stanley does, that “Passing the House bill is not an option” is an act of surrender. Ted Kennedy and his Republican poodles certainly aren’t going to start negotiations from the position that “Passing the Senate bill is not an option.”
All this talk of process and “getting things done” is inside-the-Beltway hokum — the only way House Republicans can save their majority is to package themselves as the loyal opposition to the Bush-Kennedy Party of Amnesty. The House needs to re-pass its bill (after massaging a couple provisions), with supporters saying that they’re willing to revisit the issue of guestworkers in the future, depending on how things go over the next few years. A “phased compromise” would muddy the waters and guarantee defeat in November.