"I'd have to say it probably helped."

He’s not saying this critically, mind you. He’s a member of the Gang of Eight. When Chuck Schumer refers to “our Republicans,” Flake’s one of the guys he means. He wants the bill to pass. Second look at letting O off the hook for IRS-gate before these tools drop an amnesty bomb on us while [...]

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Inevitable.

Can there really be anyone who didn’t instantly recognize this as the cheap negotiating tactic that it is? To refresh your memory, Democrats have been threatening for the past month to add an amendment to the Gang of Eight bill that would extend spousal benefits for illegals under the bill to gay spouses too. That’s [...]

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Yep, probably.

This point has been made many, many, many times elsewhere this week, but let me put out a little BOLO of my own just in case attention on our side of the aisle is starting to wander too far from immigration. There are two theories on how Scandalmania might affect O’s second-term agenda. Theory one: [...]

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Lame duck.

Not the first poll this week to show Republicans suddenly ahead of The One on guns, either. The latest NYT/CBS poll had them up 44/41 when respondents were asked who they trusted more to make the right decisions on gun control. Those numbers were significant because they showed a reversal in public opinion. Here’s Pew’s [...]

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Rollout.

During a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Sen. Paul made a comparison between the Gang of Eight’s proposed immigration bill and ObamaCare which, on its face, might be considered fightin’ words betwixt the circles of the GOP — but, he was really making a solid point about the intricacies and potential [...]

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Trillions.

An exhaustive study by the Heritage Foundation has found that after amnesty, current unlawful immigrants would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits and services and pay more than $3 trillion in taxes over their lifetimes. That leaves a net fiscal deficit (benefits minus taxes) of $6.3 trillion. That deficit would have to be financed by [...]

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"I don’t define myself just as a Hispanic."

Via the Free Beacon. He says he didn’t mean Cruz can’t be defined as Hispanic, just that Cruz shouldn’t be defined exclusively by race. His problem is that he’s saying this against a backdrop of 25 years of liberals accusing Clarence Thomas of being inauthentically black because his politics are right-wing rather than left. And [...]

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"No, no. He’s anti-immigration. Almost every Hispanic in the country wants to see immigration reform."

Via Breitbart, deep thoughts from BR on (a) how insulting our politics has become, and also (b) how Ted Cruz is a phony Latino. Skip to 2:15 for the key bit. Actually, I think Ramesh Ponnuru’s right that the question is arguably more revealing than the answer: I think you can just barely, with charity, [...]

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Invaders

This morning I switched over to CBS in advance of Face the Nation while I was working and happened to catch the last half hour of CBS News Sunday Morning. One segment they featured was an “historical” piece focusing on the Mexican American war, featuring an interview with author Amy S. Greenberg. She published a [...]

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Questions.

Lots of standard Sunday fare this morning — Mike Rogers and Jane Harman on Syria and the Tsarnaevs, McCain and Durbin on immigration reform — with two noteworthy exceptions. Darrell Issa will appear on CBS to preview the new round of hearings with Benghazi whistleblowers, whose star witnesses have just been revealed. And Jim DeMint [...]

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Borders.

President Obama said there is one thing he absolutely won’t compromise on in immigration reform: a pathway to citizenship. But as for what he would be willing to give up, he won’t say… The president praised the bill produced by the Gang of Eight as a “good piece of work” that doesn’t include everything Obama [...]

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Oh my.

Chris Stirewalt argues yes, and not without reason. Before we get to that, though, I want to flag this WaPo story about Obama leaning on liberals privately to take half a loaf on immigration in the name of getting something passed. Since the beginning of the Gang of Eight’s big push, there’s been a theory [...]

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Showtime.

Even knowing that most reporters are pro-reform, I can’t believe they’re taking this lame gambit semi-seriously. Mickey Kaus is right, of course. Not remotely is this an obstacle to passing the Gang of Eight bill. If anything, it’s a little nudge towards passage from Schumer and company. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has [...]

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"They shouldn’t have let him in. Bells should have gone off.”

Proof of innocent intent in disposing of Tsarnaev’s “materials”? Just think: This guy was months away from being amnestized by Schumer/McCain/Rubio, and now he’s gone and thrown it all away. Expect Lindsey Graham to be on TV within the hour arguing simultaneously that (1) no one should use this new revelation to politicize the new [...]

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Hmmm.

Nothing more than a tweet from the Boston Police Department;s official account, but that’s spreading like wildfire on Twitter — for understandable reasons: Three additional suspects taken into custody in Marathon bombing case. Details to follow. — Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) May 1, 2013 Boston Police say three additional suspects taken into custody in Boston [...]

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Hmmm.

So says the Daily Mail, based on an interview with an unnamed Saudi “senior government official” with direct knowledge of the letter sent to the US.  According to the official, Tamerlan Tsarnaev applied in December 2011 to enter Saudi Arabia to visit Mecca, but the Saudis got suspicious of his actual intent and denied the [...]

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Oh my.

Raul Labrador’s been saying this for months, that any bill with a “special” path to citizenship for illegals is DOA in the House, but I’m still surprised to hear Rubio say it. You don’t think the GOP leadership can find 30 or so panicky Republican reps to vote with a unified Democratic caucus in the [...]

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Yep.

Syria and the Tsarnaevs: It’s an intelligence showcase for the Sunday shows this morning. House Intel Committee members Mike Rogers and Dutch Rupperberger will be on ABC, Senate Intel Committee member Saxby Chambliss will be on CBS, and Homeland Security Committee member Mike McCaul will hit Fox to explain why the FBI missed Tamerlan Tsarnaev [...]

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Loopholes.

Last week, I reported the following: One of the lingering questions I’ve harbored about the forthcoming “Gang of Eight” immigration bargain (the Tuesday roll-out of which was appropriately postponed due to the events in Boston) is how long the “open enrollment” period for amnesty would be. Surely the bill includes a finite time box, rather [...]

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Borders.

The [Gang of Eight] bill would … exempt wide swaths of people currently counted against immigration caps from any limits: The spouses and children of legal permanent residents would be allowed to come to the country on an unlimited basis, for example. Thus, some combination of, perhaps, 7 million DREAMers, agricultural workers, and the newly [...]

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"A fine-toothed comb."

Straight talk. “I believe if we pass this legislation, it won’t gain us a single Hispanic vote, but what it will do is put us a playing field where we can compete. Right now we can’t compete,” he said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “The numbers in the last couple of [...]

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Salesmanship.

Rubio really is a one-man conservative outreach program when it comes to this bill. His ties to the tea party base are so deep that reformers were constantly worried he’d abandon negotiations rather than risk an inevitable backlash by signing onto a compromise. Rubio made light of the dynamic at a press conference introducing the [...]

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Society?

Via Michael Goldfarb, a complement to Erick Erickson’s post today at Red State about Republican aides turning desperate, shrill, and repulsive as the Gang of Eight bill runs into stumbling blocks. Quote: MORNING MINDMELD, from GOP Senate aide whose boss favors immigration reform: “The … analysis that the Boston attacks are a setback for immigration [...]

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Questions.

Via the Daily Rushbo, I assume from the second clip below that Rubio didn’t persuade him in the first. He didn’t persuade me either. I’ve held off on posting over the last few days even though fellow border hawks Conn Carroll and Mickey Kaus have been tearing into the Gang of Eight’s plan because I [...]

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