Making News

Many thanks to Generalissimo Duane and Adam for their able assistance and -- of course -- to Hugh Hewitt for permitting me to sit in for him as he cruises the Mediterranean. Today, the show made news on two different fronts pertaining to the immigration bill.

First, Congressman John Campbell revealed -- and Congressman David Dreier confirmed -- that the GOP House Caucus is meeting tomorrow morning. The caucus will vote on whether to release a one-sentence statement expressing opposition to the Senate immigration bill in its current form.

That's significant, of course, because should a sufficient number of House Republicans oppose the bill, Nancy Pelosi won't bring it to the House floor. Thus, the message to wavering Republican senators from their House counterparts would be: Don't bother to "walk the plank," i.e., vote for a bill that will anger your constituents, especially when it doesn't have a chance over here in the House. It's a significant development, and Duane will be posting the transcripts of those interviews at HughHewitt.com.

Second, we spoke with my former boss, Missouri Senator Kit Bond. Senator Bond's position has been labeled as an "unknown" when it comes to the immigration bill, but today on the air he confirmed that, unless his amendment to eliminate the "pathway to citizenship" was adopted (along with several other Republican amendments), he would vote against cloture on the bill, i.e. to kill it. Given the unlikeliness of the Democratic majority supporting a measure that would undermine a chief rationale for the bill (i.e. to locate and naturalize a new group of reliable Democratic voters), chances are that Senator Bond will join many of his Republican compatriots in opposing cloture on the Senate immigration bill.