Immigration Reform Dead

IMMIGRATION REFORM DEAD....It looks like the immigration bill is dead. That surprises me. It seemed as if there were enough people on both sides of the aisle who would benefit from putting this behind them that it was likely to pass. But in the end, it wasn't even close.

The defeat came almost entirely at the hands of the hardliners, and I confess that I can't figure out what they're thinking. Sure, they think the current bill is worse than doing nothing at all, but when do they think they're going to get another crack at this? It's going to be years, and at this point it looks to me like the political environment in the future is more likely to be more liberal than it is to be more conservative. My guess is that the hardliners aren't going to get a better deal in 2010 than the one they voted down on Thursday.

Beats me. I'm in the "better than nothing" camp, though, so I'm disappointed it went down to defeat.