Senator Dick Durbin (D. IL) chimed in on the number of votes in the Senate it'll take to pass immigration reform this year:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said Monday that the so-called Gang of Eight immigration reform bill has already been so weakened by concessions on border security that it would be a "big mistake" to push for 70 votes, according to The Hill.
Durbin responded with a firm "no" when asked on CBS News whether the bill needed more than 70 votes.
"We need 60 votes by the Senate standards," he told CBS, as quoted by The Hill. "The more the better though. I just don’t want to compromise the values in this bill." - TPM, 6/17/13
Durbin goes on to explain:
http://thehill.com/...
Durbin went on to stress that there had been concessions and negotiations on both sides before the bill was first unveiled.
"We worked for four months, had 30 minutes, [Sens.] John McCain [R-Ariz.], Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.], Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.], Marco Rubio [R-Fla.], myself, Bob Menendez [D-N.J.], we worked all this time to come up with a basic framework, and if we’re going to abandon this now to pick up 2, 3, 4 or 5 votes, that’s a big mistake," Durbin said.
The senators he named are all in the bipartisan group that crafted the bill.
Those pushing to win more GOP votes argue a big vote in the Senate would increase pressure on the House to take up the legislation.
The delicate Senate negotiations have been strained in recent weeks as Rubio has sought to push the bill further to the right, in hopes of gaining cover with his base and securing more Republican votes.
Durbin suggested that Republicans could pay a political cost if their maneuvering scuttled the bill.
"There’s no question in my mind that America is changing, more diverse. The voters are changing, and they’re going to look to those parties and candidates who are receptive to this change," Durbin said. "If your party candidate for president is saying leave, as in self-deport, it really says, well you don’t care much for immigrants. And people say, well that means the Hispanic vote." - The Hill, 6/17/13
Plus the goal for 70 votes may not be what's best for the immigration bill:
http://www.politico.com/...
The 70-vote strategy has splintered Senate Democratic leaders, with Durbin and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) seeking to focus on securing 60 votes — enough to defeat a GOP filibuster — and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leader of the Gang of Eight, pushing for a vote tally north of 70.
Durbin and Reid fear the bill will be yanked too far to the right to run up the vote total. But Schumer — as well as other Gang members like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) – want overwhelming passage in the Senate to enact more pressure on the GOP-led House on immigration reform.
The Senate will pick up its work on the immigration bill later Monday, and leaders still hope to finish the bill before Congress leaves for the July 4 recess. - Politico, 6/17/13
The relationship between Senators Chuck Schumer (D. NY) and John McCain (R. AZ) is just one of ten anecdotes the Washington Post's The Fix has pointed out indicating which way immigration reform will go. In fact it's the first one they recognized. Here are the other nine:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
2. Obama wasn’t initially happy to let gang steer the effort: According to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), President Obama was not initially happy with letting the gang take the lead on the reform effort. He came around, though, letting the eight senators take control as he recognized the risk of alienating Republicans with too big a footprint. Still, a senior White House official told Ryan Lizza from the New Yorker: “No decisions are being made without talking to us about it.”
3. McConnell wanted Cornyn, Grassley to join the gang: McCain ignored Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that conservative Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) join the group. McCain’s decision not to court the reform skeptics was an early signal that the group wanted like-minded colleagues who could rally around some key principles.
4. Durbin courted Rubio in the gym: The gang wanted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on board, and it was liberal Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois who reached out to Rubio in the Senate gym. These days, Rubio is now fending off allegations from the political right that he is just doing the bidding of the liberals in the gang.
5. The McCain-Rubio relationship is not all roses. McCain would go to Schumer, Lizza writes, when he was upset about something Rubio was doing. And McCain’s quote on Rubio doesn’t exactly amount to glowing praise.
6. “There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it.” That quote, attributed to an anonymous Rubio aide, has irked some on the right. And Rubio’s spokesman said his office “strongly objected to the magazine using the background quotes like they did because they misrepresented the Senator’s position.”
7. From “undocumented” to “illegal.” The current reform effort is in large part guided by where things went wrong in 2007. Case in point: Schumer’s decision to say “illegal immigrants” over ”undocumented workers.”
8. Border security provision is “just a goal.” A Schumer aide is quoted as calling the border security provision in the bill “just a goal,” something which is likely to inflame existing demands from Republicans that the bill shore up its security requirements.
9. Leahy angered Schumer: Here’s a reminder that things can get heated even among colleagues of the same party working toward the same goal. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) angered Schumer when he dragged out a decision over whether to introduce an gay rights amendment. Only after Schumer and other Democrats announced they would not support the amendment did Leahy announce he would not submit it for a vote. Schumer was not pleased he had to go on the record against with a comment putting him at odds with gay rights activists.
10. Just like .. marriage? Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has been one of Obama’s most outspoken critics when it comes to last year’s deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya. But that hasn’t stopped him from working with the president on immigration. - Washington Post, 6/17/13
I agree with Durbin that we don't need to weaken immigration reform any more to get 70 votes. We need 60 to pass it. Please be sure to contact your Senator and tell them to support comprehensive immigration reform, not weaken it:
http://www.senate.gov/...