Tue 6 Nov 2007
[KR: How does one cover a topic when there is no news coverage of it? Letters to the editors offer one possibility. Here is a good question posed by Rudy Espino at Arizona State. Any ideas or suggestions? Please add to comments on this post.].
Immigrant Politics Bloggers,
Of course, you are aware of the most recent inability to muster enough
votes in the Senate for the Dream Act. And if you were following it
closely, you might have noticed that two of the previous co-sponsors of
some version of the Dream Act were among four of the Senators that did
not cast a vote - McCain and Kennedy; the other two no-votes were Boxer
and Dodd.
I would have thought all 4 would have been definite aye votes. But,
perhaps, McCain and Dodd, in particular, were on the campaign trail and
saw the writing on the wall about the likely outcome of this vote.
Well, if you go to a roll call cast one hour before the Dream Act
cloture vote, you find three no-votes: Kennedy, Boxer, and Dodd. McCain
was there on the Senate floor one hour before the Dream Act cloture
vote.
I have yet to find any press accounts questioning why Kennedy and McCain
were gone on this cloture vote. Kennedy, it seems, was clearly not in
the building - of three roll calls that day he was absent on all three.
McCain, on the other hand, was present for two of those three - and the
one who he chose to be absent on was that Dream Act cloture vote.
Strike you as odd?
Rudy
–
Rodolfo Espino, Arizona State University
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
November 9th, 2007 at 10:06 am
My query was prompted, in part, by a conversation I was having with a reporter here in Arizona - Dan Gonzalez.
He and Dan Nowicki published an article yesterday in the Arizona Republic on this:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1108mccain-immig1108.html
November 12th, 2007 at 8:39 am
McCain’s comments in the article pretty much show his thinking on this, although it’s unclear what he would have done if the vote was close to passage. Would he rather get his policy goals, or be president?
“I’m for it,” McCain said. “But we’re not going to pass anything through Congress until 2009. Everybody knows that. . . . We had the (immigration-reform) debate. The wounds are still open, and, unfortunately, it’s going to be 2009 before we bring it up again.”
—
My sense is that the push for enforcement would be there regardless of who is President; just look at the 1996 legislation that Clinton felt compelled to sign. As long as you need 60 Senate votes, any president or ruling party will need a show of force at the border (whether symbolic or real) in order to pass more comprehensive reform.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I would have to dig up a link but it was my understanding that Kennedy was very sick that day so didn’t make it for the vote. As for McCain, he’s made it a habit to skip any votes that attach him to an actual policy stance that is controversial. It keeps the Straight Talk Express running smoothly. Or something.