Senate Caves In on Border Fence Bill
The Democrats in the Senate fail us once again. After Thursday's approval of the torture - denial of habeas bill, Friday they voted to approve the House bill to build a 700 mile fence across the border.
House Republicans, fearing a voter backlash, had opposed any approach that smacked of amnesty and chose instead to focus on border security in advance of the elections, passing the fence bill earlier this month. With time running out, the Senate acquiesced despite its bipartisan passage of a broader bill in May.
Congress also passed a separate $34.8 billion homeland security spending bill that contained an estimated $21.3 billion for border security, including $1.2 billion for the fence and associated barriers and surveillance systems.
Politics suck. No one has a spine. Everything is about compromise. If the minority party wants any of their bills to advance to a hearing or a vote, they have to capitulate to the party in power on their issues. I learned this first-hand many times, the last time being on a visit to Congress in 2003 to advocate for the Innocence Protection bill. Congressman Sensenbrenner's aide made it clear that if Democrats didn't cave on a bill he wanted -- the Feeney Amendment which would increase federal sentences -- neither the IP bill, nor any bill the Democrats sought to advance, would ever make it to a vote. They controlled the calendar. Congressman Bill Delahunt and Sen. Patrick Leahy's staff confirmed this.
I wondered then and I wonder now, who has the stomach for this? I certainly don't. I'm trained as an advocate, fight to the finish, if you lose, at least you fought the good fight.
Sometimes it's important to stand on principle. The Senate failed to do this on the military commissions bill, and now, on the border fence bill. The Democrats got zilch in return. There was no advantage to their concession, except to appear to their constituents that they, too, are tough on crime and tough on immigration.
The left is simply not represented in Congress. We are still perceived as a liability. Centrism sucks. Values message or no values message, if being a Democrat means caving in on every issue that matters to me, from the death penalty to innocence issues to wiretapping to more mandatory minimum sentences to deporting those who have lived here for decades simply because they don't have proper papers, then what's the difference between the parties? Newsflash: There is none.
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