Hallelujah! Excellent! Outstanding!

Now maybe the Republicans can come together and seriously focus on the presidential campaign, and perhaps find some common cause with President Bush again (Supreme Court nominations?) The damage to the President from this is profound and lasting. The trust level with the base has plummeted to unprecedented depths. John McCain's campaign took the final, fatal hit from the bill.

Why the President chose this moment, in the middle of an unpopular war, to go to war with his political base will long remain a mystery. What were his advisors thinking? What was he thinking? It's not a matter of governing by polls. But the President must have all the support he can get now while fighting this war in Iraq. Sen. Richard Lugar's comments a couple of days ago reflect a growing mainstream Republican uneasiness about continuing the current strategy in Iraq, and Mr. Bush's unnecessary fight with his base is likely to - and probably already has - caused critical Republican support to move away from everything he attempts, including continuing the present strategy in Iraq.

The President's failure (or unwillingness) to understand that opponents of the bill had security of the country as their paramount concern, prior to regularization of illegals, was a critical one. It was this key miscalculation that ultimately led to critical mass against the President.

This is a very good day for American that this bill has gone down, and this time there's no chance of it coming back. The President would do well to now move on and try and rekindle relations with the base. That may or may not be possible at this point. The Republican base seems now to have moved on from Mr. Bush. The insults thrown by the President and members of his administration (Chavez, Chertoff, et al) toward those who had a legitimate argument against this bill have done lasting damage to Mr. Bush's credibility. The President's attempt to push this issue at this time has indeed damaged the country. But some of that damage has been mitigated by the destruction of this profoundly misguided bill.

Oops, Sen. Jim Demint has uncovered a key fact that immigration bill supporters have failed to mention. Sen. Demint's press release:

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) released Wednesday a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) which says the new Senate immigration bill contains a major loophole in border security. Supporters of the bill say it provides $4.4 billion in immediate mandatory spending for border enforcement, but according to the CRS analysis, the funds could also be used immediately to implement the amnesty provisions [of the] bill.

“This is just another example of how this bill claims to do one thing but does something else entirely. It’s another example of an empty promise being used to buy votes for amnesty,” said Senator DeMint. “The supporters of this bill have been running around trying to convince people that this money will be used to secure the border first, but now we know that’s not the case. If you read the fine print, the bill says this money can also be used for amnesty.

According to the CRS report provided to Senator DeMint, the mandatory spending in the bill could immediately be used for Z visas. It says, “(r)eceiving, processing, and adjudicating applications for the Z visa authorized by Title VI of the Act is one of the trigger mechanisms outlined in Section 1; this means that funding from the Immigration Security Account could be used for this purpose.”

In addition, the report says the funds could be used for Y visas and other programs once the trigger mechanisms have been met but it does not require the Secretary of Homeland Security to certify the trigger. The report says, “S. 1639 does not explicitly stipulate whether the certification required by Section 1 would have to take place prior to funding being made available for the additional purposes outlined in Section 2(C).”

“Not only can this money be used for things other than border security and enforcement, it looks like another backdoor trick to promote amnesty,” said Senator DeMint. “If Congress appropriates money later this year for the border, the money provided in this bill will turn into a slush fund the Administration can use to ensure illegal immigrants are legalized.”

Given President Bush's almost total lack of interest and aptitude in securing the Southern border, and the necessary assumption which assumes that he would use the money for amnesty rather than border security, this is just one more reason for rejection of this bill.

There is hope after all.

Sen. John Cornyn from the floor of the Senate this morning:

"I was forwarded a copy of a transcript of an interview with a White House official yesterday commenting on some remarks I made surrounding the immigration bill.

I have argued that the current bill sets DHS up for failure because it requires DHS to grant full work and travel authorization to illegal aliens within 24 hours of their application whether they have completed a background check or not.

That is the text of the current immigration bill.

The White House yesterday told reporters that I was perpetuating “misunderstanding and mythology” about the provision.

First, let me quote from the text of the provision. It reads:

601 (h) (2) Timing of Probationary Benefits.—No probationary benefits shall be issued to an alien until the alien has passed all appropriate background checks or the end of the next business day, whichever is sooner.

That is what the bill says. I know people that draft language believe it is the perfect draft and believe it should attain mythical status, but this is pretty straightforward. If an alien applies, he gets legal status, full travel and work authorization, no later than the next day.

Now, the White House official believes that this provision is workable because, as he says, “Four of the layers of that background check are almost invariably completed within 24 hours.”

Almost always completing a background check within 24 hours is not always completing a background check within 24 hours. Additionally, he acknowledges that one of the checks takes longer than 24 hours. So by his own admission, DHS will be granting full legal rights to nearly every applicant even though they who have NOT completed a background check.

This is not what the American people are hearing when they are selling this bill. The American people are being told that aliens will have to pass a background check before they are granted legal status. This is not true according to the text of the underlying bill and it is not factually possible according to the lead negotiator from the White House.

Not to be deterred by fact, the White House official believes this should be of no concern because if anything comes up in the background check beyond the 24 hours then DHS will declare the person ineligible and deport them.

Certainly that is a concept we all can support, that is if someone is ineligible they should be deported.

My concern is the gulf between the promise being made to the American people and the likelihood that that promise will actually be carried out. The White House negotiator says that this is of no concern because they will just declare them ineligible and deport them. But, the question is will they? If they already have this capability why has nothing been done about criminal aliens already?

Right now there are approximately 600,000 fugitive absconders, including criminal fugitives, in the United States. DHS has created a unit designed solely to track down, apprehend and deport these fugitives. However, there is no appreciable dent in this number. And DHS has information on these people as well.

But let's keep in mind that as the Department of Homeland Security is so diligently tracking down the thousands of criminal aliens that their all-inclusive background checks have uncovered, that there are a myriad of others changes which they will have to affect.

1) hire, train, and deploy up to 20,000 border patrol agents

2) implement a worker verification system to screen over 200 million workers throughout the country

3) build up to 370 miles of fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers.

4) deploy the secure border initiative

5) deploy the exit monitoring system of US Visit

6) process 12 million initial applicants for Z visas

(7) build 105 radar and camera towers

(8) detain all removable aliens caught on the southern border utilizing detention facilities with a capacity of only 31,500 people per day

All this while keeping up with current demand in applications and preparing to re-implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative which clogged our passport process and proved the government's inability to handle such enormous undertakings as the one proposed.

That's a tough sell to say the least, Mr. President. Especially from an Administration that, as of two years ago, was doing absolutely nothing to beef up border security. It was routinely objecting to Congressional requests for more border agents and other border enforcement measures, and doing nothing to increase other infrastructure improvements needed to enforce our laws.

So once again, I fear that like in 1986, we are promising something to the American people that we cannot deliver. We should slow down, read this bill, and make sure it works."

The President seems intent on destroying the current Republican party by going to war with the few in America who still support him - his political base. He made further progress toward the achievement of that goal today, with enough Republican senators finally succumbing to White House pressure, and voting to bring back the immigration bill.

The President would have the American people believe, despite his complete failure thus far to secure the Southern border, that he is now intent on doing so. The President would have us believe, and insults our intelligence in arguing, that a guest worker program is necessary before border security is achievable. The logic of that escapes me, but then Mr. Bush and the concept of logic are rarely synonymous these days.

The senators voting to bring this bill back to the floor - many of them are up for reelection next year, and as a result strong primary challengers should be encouraged to run against them. The money should flow to the challengers, and not the incumbents voting to bring back this monstrosity of a bill.

The President is clueless and hopeless on this matter, and I've written him off because of it. He makes a mockery of his War on Terror with his refusal to secure the border that terrorists today could easily infiltrate across. Those who have believed strongly in the war against terrorism that Mr. Bush has so strongly pushed for, and which got us into the debacle in Iraq - so incompetently managed by Mr. Bush - incredously stand here, our faces slapped by the President as he refuses to enhance security on the border. How can anyone ever take this President seriously on security again?

It is now up to the viable Republican presidential candidates - Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani (McCain is finished) - to make a complete split with George W. Bush on this issue once and for all, indeed to strongly and publicly repudiate him for this sham, and to rally the demoralized Republican base, a base that needs rallying if victory is to be achieved in 2008.

***

Glenn Reynolds:

WHAT SHOULD REPUBLICANS DO as the GOP seems to be committing suicide? I dunno -- saving the GOP isn't my job, and if the Democrats weren't worse on national security I wouldn't mind much. (And the GOP advantage there seems to be shrinking anyway).

But you've got three basic choices: Exit, voice, and loyalty. That is, quit, bitch like hell, or hold your nose and vote.

Problem is, people have been exercising "voice" a lot and it's clear that President Bush, Trent Lott, et al., don't care and aren't listening. So if you don't want to hold your nose, you've got to exit, either to a third party, to a GOP candidate you like, or to another engagement on Election Day -- go fishing, perhaps? I think the GOP's vulnerability to a third party challenge has just gone way up.

In The Groove.

She will defy the President, and go against reviving the awful immigration bill:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who has been under intense pressure from the White House and Republican leadership to support a sweeping immigration overhaul, nevertheless announced today that she will vote against reviving the legislation when it returns to the Senate floor next week.

She was joined today by the state's other senator, Republican John Cornyn, who had been expected by the bill's supporters to take such a stance. They had aggressively lobbied Hutchison in hopes of adding her vote to the 60 necessary to revive the stalled legislation.

"I could not support (bringing the bill to a vote) in its present position," Hutchison, criticizing the legislation as amnesty for illegal immigrants, said today.

As No. 4 in the Senate GOP leadership, Hutchison is the highest-ranking Republican to break from her party on a domestic policy issue of signal importance to President Bush.

"Until major changes are made that reject amnesty and a more open, fair process emerges for debating one of the most crucial issues facing our nation, I cannot support this immigration bill," she said.

Good for her. Sen Hutchinson must have been hearing from constituents who are outraged by the bill. She is to be commended for responding to them, and for standing up to a Republican party leadership that still inexplicably supports this dog of a bill.

In London:

From Trent "Talk radio is running America" Lott.

ABC News:

Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9.

Meanwhile, securing the Southern border is the last thing on the President's mind, and you can bet the suicide teams are well aware of that.

He's at just 7 percent, according to Mason-Dixon. Ouch!

Harry Reid is determined to bring the bill back next week. The witch isn't dead.

First he said the U.S. is "losing" the war in Iraq.

Now, in an unprecedented and outrageous move, Harry Reid has called Gen. Peter Pace "incompetent."

Is there no limit to the depth that Mr. Reid will go to damage the United States for political gain?

Harry Reid's comment is disgusting, and it should be unconditionally repudiated by congressional Democrats.

Thus violating the 11th Commandment, and further dooming his candidacy. McCain has only his backstabbing of the Republican base on so many issues important to it to blame for his predicament. Mitt Romney is not McCain's problem. John McCain is McCain's problem.

McCain's dismissal of the base during his push of his and Ted Kennedy's immigration reform bill, and his insistence on trying to imperiously shove that bill through on a fast track with little debate, has permanently alienated him from rank and file Republicans, and doomed his presidential prospects.

He has a blog and a YouTube page, continuing to show why he can stay out of the race for so long, yet still gather such strong support with the masterful use of online media.

Here is a recent rebuttal to Michael Moore, made on the fly and without a script after Moore challenged Thompson to a debate: