Dems Who Voted Against Cloture

The Senate immigration bill didn’t just fail by a whisker.  The vote for cloture on S.1639 went down 46-53. Check the U.S. Senate website.

What’s interesting is the 16 Democrats who voted with the 53 of Senators, Democrat and Republican, to deny cloture.  Let us get this clear. There were 16 Democrats and 37 Republicans who voted against the comprehensive immigration bill brought to the Senate by President Bush, Senator Kennedy, and Senator McCain. Here is the list of the Democratic Senators voting against cloture. Alongside each senator is their class and the most recent year that they faced or will face the voters:

Senator Class Closest election Baucus (D-MT) II 2008 Bayh (D-IN) III 2010 Bingaman (D-NM) I 2006 Brown (D-OH) I 2006 Byrd (D-WV) I 2006 Dorgan (D-ND) III 2010 Harkin (D-IA) II 2008 Landrieu (D-LA) II 2008 McCaskill (D-MO) I 2006 Nelson (D-NE) I 2006 Pryor (D-AR) III 2010 Rockefeller (D-WV) II 2008 Sanders (I-VT) III 2010 Stabenow (D-MI) I 2006 Tester (D-MT) I 2006 Webb (D-VA) I 2006

Notice anything?  The biggest group of senators was recently elected in 2006.  What’s to bet that they said they would stand strong on protecting the border, and they don’t want to be on the wrong side of that promise.

The next biggest group is up for reelection in 2008.  What’s to bet that they want to be on the right side of the voters next year.

The smallest group is up for reelection in 2010.  They are the folks who are the least concerned with what the voters think right now.

This immigration thing isn’t all that hard.

1. Enforce the law
2. Build the fence
3. Clear the backlogs
4. Process the legal immigrants
5. Then... amnesty the illegals

What’s not to like about that?