Democrats don't have enough members in the House to make a discharge petition on immigration successful, the Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe informs us. Democrats respond:
This is the kind of
incisive analysis that gets you into the big leagues of political reporting:
Simply put, the math isn't there. The House Democratic caucus includes 199 members — 19 short of the votes needed for a petition to succeed. No House Republicans have said they plan to sign the petition and buck party leaders.
Wait, Democrats don't have the votes to pass their legislation through the House? Surely not! You have to have some sympathy for people expected to rewrite the same stories over and over, but c'mon. This is sad even by those standards. It's not until the seventh paragraph in that we get to the actual story:
Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently conceded that a discharge petition won't succeed in forcing a vote on immigration reform. "We'll never get to 218 on the discharge petition,” she told Sirius XM Radio’s Julie Mason at an event earlier this month.
But, Pelosi said, "outside mobilization is saying, 'All we want is a vote.'"
And that's the bigger goal of Democrats in this situation. They want to inspire outside groups, Latino voters and others pushing for reforms to hold it against Republicans during elections this fall.
That's nothing new, but at least it's addressing part of what's actually going on. Immigration reform will happen either when Democrats control Congress or when John Boehner feels too much pressure to ignore it.
Sign the petition: Demand that House members sign a discharge petition to pass immigration reform.