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ABC's Jake Tapper reminded us of the problem that the immigration bill was supposed to fix: "status quo border security…at least 12m illegal immigrants…an antiquated and broken immigration system…that system will continue as is, with no solution in sight." For the former governor of a border state, "immigration has been a signature issue throughout his career," NBC's David Gregory reminded us, with a never-enacted guest worker program being "a top priority" when George Bush entered the White House. NBC anchor Brian Williams asked Tim Russert (at the tail of the Gregory videostream) whether the legislation could be revived: "It is dead. Finito. Morte. It is over."
Most of the opposition to the bill came from Senate Republicans, CBS' Sharyl Attkisson observed, even including the pair from Georgia--Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson--who were members of the original bipartisan group that drafted the legislation. They were "influenced by the backlash from constituents at home," she reflected, despite the fact that her network's own poll showed that 51% of Americans "did not know enough about the bill to say one way or the other" whether they supported it. As for the Democrats, NBC's Russert predicted that in Campaign 2008 they will "try to convince Hispanics that they were the party with a pathway to citizenship and they will try to get the Hispanic vote by a margin of two-to-one."
When the President persuaded only 12 senators from his own party to support him, reporters were unanimous: "greatly diminished clout"--NBC's Gregory; "just did not have the clout"--CBS' Attkisson; "serious loss of clout"--ABC's Tapper. CBS' Jim Axelrod consulted Douglas Brinkley, his network's in-house historian: "Bush is beyond being a lame duck President. He is a dead duck President."
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