Victory is Sweet!

[jrance@iacwds.com 716]

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA

Date: Thursday 7JUN07 11:45 p.m EDT

 

 

Send new faxes to reinforce votes that killed amnesty tonight -- and condemn the pro-amnesty votes

 

Senate amnesty bill got only 45 of needed 60 votes tonight that would have broken the filibuster and allowed a final vote for passage. Because of the 45-50 vote, the bill may be dead for the year.

 

To keep it dead, I urge you to go to your Action Buffet corkboard and send the new faxes to either praise or condemn your Senators' votes tonight.

VICTORY IS SWEET, FRIENDS!

 

And it may be sweetest when you know that you were an important part of the cause.

 

"There is no question that citizens using the NumbersUSA activist mobilization system were the key to this tremendous victory tonight," Rosemary just told me from our Capitol Hill office. She noted that many Senators in their speeches mentioned the overwhelming unpopularity of S. 1348 as their offices were flooded with phone calls and faxes.

 

"When this new Congress was sworn in back in January, we were told the amnesty bill would be introduced in February and would be quickly passed by the Senate just as an amnesty passed last year," said Rosemary Jenks (leader of our Capitol Hill Team).

 

Nearly every opponent of amnesty on the Hill has assumed that after a hard-fought fight, the Senate would pass an amnesty again this year and then we would hope to stop it in the House of Representatives. Stopping it in the Senate has to be seen as something of a political miracle -- although Rosemary has insisted all year that we could do it.

 

"The American people broke through the elitist mentality of the Senate," Rosemary said tonight. "This is democracy at work."

 

You sent more than 750,000 faxes through NumbersUSA in May alone, and more than 100,000 faxes just since our Virtual Rally Conference Call with thousands of you Wednesday afternoon! And your tens of thousands of phone calls the last two weeks have created a firestorm that the majority of Senators simply didn't want to face.

 

Your efforts were the lead item on the Fox broadcast network evening news on Wednesday. (The news clip starts with a 30-second commercial and then you see Rosemary in our conference room.)

 

 

DEFENSE STRATEGY WORKED

 

 

Your tireless work (many of you were responding two and three times a day lately to our Action Alerts) brought the defensive victory that we had mapped out for you from the beginning:

 

1. INCREASE DEMOCRATIC AMNESTY OPPOSITION

 

Last year, when we failed to stop the amnesty in the Senate. We only got 4 Democrats to oppose it. We were shooting for seven this year.

 

You all really put the pressure on.

 

Tonight, 12 Senators from the Democratic side of the aisle joined us in opposing the amnesty and huge increase in foreign workers:

 

Baucus (D-Mont.)

Bingaman (D-NM)

Boxer (D-Calif.)

Byrd (D-WV)

Dorgan (D-ND)

* Landrieu (D-La.)

McCaskill (D-Mo.)

* Pryor (D-Ark.)

* Rockefeller(D-WV)

Sanders (I-Vt.)

Tester (D-Mont.)

Webb (D-Va.)

 

Interestingly, Landrieu, Pryor and Rockefeller are up for re-election next year.

 

McCaskill, Tester and Webb unseated incumbent Republicans last year while promising to oppose amnesties. They upheld their promises tonight.

 

Bingaman, Boxer and Sanders are the surprises here. We will be interested in learning more about how they happened to end up on our side when they generally are so bad on our issues.

 

Of course, Dorgan and Byrd have been two of our staunchest allies for some time.

 

In those states, you will want to give as much positive reinforcement as possible. Let's hold onto these Senators for future votes.

 

Two major disappointments on the Democratic side were:

 

Nelson (D-Neb.)

Stabenow (D-Mich.)

 

Last year when they were running for re-election, they voted AGAINST the amnesty bill, surely sensing what most voters wanted them to do.

 

Their support FOR the amnesty tonight raises serious questions about the integrity of their re-election campaigns.

 

2. REDUCE REPUBLICAN AMNESTY SUPPORT

 

We had said that we had to limit Republican supporters of the Bush/Kennedy Comprehensive Amnesty bill to no more than 15, even though 27 of the sitting Republicans voted FOR cloture to allow last year's amnesty to pass..

 

Thanks to your incredible pressure on these Republicans, only 7 of those 27 ended up voting for the amnesty cloture tonight:

 

THE SELLOUT SEVEN

* Graham (R-SC)

* Hagel (R-Neb.)

Lugar (R-Ind.)

Martinez (R-Fla.)

McCain (R-Ariz.)

Specter (R-Pa.)

Voinovich (R-Ohio)

 

Although the Republican President devoted huge amounts of time from his top officials to getting this amnesty passed, only these seven Republicans stood with Pres. Bush tonight.

 

I hope that those of you in those states will pour on a huge amount of criticism, even if you think these Senators are hopeless sentimentalists for open borders.

 

The really exciting news from tonight was the list of 19 Republicans who voted AGAINST cloture even though they voted for it on last year's amnesty.

 

Some of these Senators had some pretty lousy votes on amendments the last two weeks, but in the end they did the right thing and voted to effectively kill the bill tonight:

 

SWITCHED FROM BAD TO GOOD

* Alexander (R-TN)

Bennett (R-UT)

* Cochran (R-MS)

* Coleman (R-MN)

* Collins (R-ME)

* Cornyn (R-TX)

* Craig (R-ID)

* Domenici (R-NM)

Gregg (R-NH)

Hatch (R-UT)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Kyl (R-AZ)

Lott (R-MS)

* McConnell (R-KY)

Murkowski (R-AK)

* Smith (R-OR)

Snowe (R-ME)

Stevens (R-AK)

* Warner (R-VA)

 

3. HOLD ANTI-AMNESTY REPUBLICANS FROM LAST YEAR

 

Perhaps the hardest was to hold on to all 19 Republicans who voted AGAINST cloture on last year's amnesty and who are still in Congress.

 

Several of these had been strongly indicating their interest in supporting Pres. Bush's and Sen. McCain's amnesty efforts, despite being so strong against amnesty last year -- and despite some of them running for re-election last year on a claim of being anti-amnesty.

 

Particularly rewarding tonight was to see Georgia's two Senators and Arizona's Sen. Kyl voting against the amnesty bill that they had championed after being part of closed-door negotiations that created it. We had told you in Georgia and Arizona that if you could turn these three back to the right path, we would have a chance to beat this bill.

 

VOTED AGAINST AMNESTY LAST YEAR & THIS YEAR

* Allard (R-CO)

Bond (R-MO)

Bunning (R-KY)

Burr (R-NC)

* Chambliss (R-GA)

Coburn (R-OK)

Crapo (R-ID)

DeMint (R-SC)

Dole (R-NC)

Ensign (R-NV)

Grassley (R-IA)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Isakson (R-GA)

Roberts (R-KS)

* Sessions (R-AL)

Shelby (R-AL)

* Sununu (R-NH)

Thune (R-SD)

Vitter (R-LA)

 

In addition, the one new Republican Senator, Corker of Tennessee, lived up to his campaign promise to oppose amnesties.

 

Two Republican Senators who voted against last year's amnesty weren't available to vote tonight: Coburn (R-OK) and Enzi (R-Wyo.).

 

And Sen. Brownback (R-Kan.) -- who supported amnesty last year but has backed away some from that stance as he runs for President -- also missed the vote.

 

 

WHAT'S NEXT?

 

 

Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) sounded mighty discouraged after losing the cloture vote 45-50 tonight. If we are lucky, he won't try again this year to pass the Bush/Kennedy Comprehensive Amnesty Bill.

 

He had earlier promised to hold the Senators at work late into the night Friday and even into Saturday if needed to get S. 1348 passed.

 

But when he got only 45 of the 60 votes needed to stop debate and allow a final vote on the bill, he sent the Senators home for a long weekend and has set other issues for consideration next Monday.

 

There were lots of scary speeches after the vote tonight, with Senators talking about their insistence that the bill be brought up again in some other form. But it sounded like bluster.

 

Nonetheless, we will be vigilant and let you know if anything is on the horizon.

 

In the meantime, our best hope this year is that the Administration can be pushed to continue to increase enforcement while local governments do the same so that more and more illegal aliens leave the country on their own.

 

And there is a remote possibility that Congress might pass some smaller bills that strengthen enforcement.

 

 

DON'T LET THE AMNESTY DEMOCRATS OFF THE HOOK

 

 

Once again the most eloquent and morally clear voice for the American workers tonight and the last month has belonged to Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota).

 

He talked about the billions of people in the world who live in poverty, many of whom are starving. But he said the answer to their problems is in their own countries and not through immigration.

 

Throughout, Sen. Dorgan asked who was speaking up for the American workers among all the special interest groups that were lobbying. He said the answer was that the American workers are not part of this debate.

 

This is the type of sentiment one would expect to hear from Democrats.

 

Sadly, most Democratic Senators paid no attention to the needs of American workers and voted for the amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens.

 

Unfortunately, many of you have in their states have grown so accustomed to this kind of sell-out that you no longer decry these Democrats' betrayal.

 

So, I hope you will be especially vigilant in sending faxes and making phone calls to protest the pro-amnesty vote of the following:

 

ANTI-WORKER DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED FOR THE AMNESTY

Akaka (D-HI)

Bayh (D-IN)

Biden (D-DE)

Brown (D-OH)

Cantwell (D-WA)

Cardin (D-MD)

Carper (D-DE)

Casey (D-PA)

Clinton (D-NY)

Conrad (D-ND)

Dodd (D-CT)

Durbin (D-IL)

Feingold (D-WI)

Feinstein (D-CA)

Harkin (D-IA)

Inouye (D-HI)

Kennedy (D-MA)

Kerry (D-MA)

Klobuchar (D-MN)

Kohl (D-WI)

Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Leahy (D-VT)

Levin (D-MI)

Lieberman (ID-CT)

Lincoln (D-AR)

Menendez (D-NJ)

Mikulski (D-MD)

Murray (D-WA)

Nelson (D-FL)

Nelson (D-NE)

Obama (D-IL)

Reed (D-RI)

Reid (D-NV)

Salazar (D-CO)

Schumer (D-NY)

Stabenow (D-MI)

Whitehouse (D-RI)

Wyden (D-OR)

 

 

TIME FOR A LITTLE CELEBRATION & THOUGHTS OF REPLACEMENTS FOR SOME OF THE SENATORS

 

 

While I was writing this tonight, I got a phone call from Ron Maxwell, the Hollywood director/writer/producer of such Civil War movies as "Gettysburg" and "Gods and Generals." He had some questions before he sent out an email to his many friends and associates.

 

He was ecstatic about the results today and wrote about them to his many friends. I thought I would share a few of his thoughts which carry so well the excitement that I'm sure most of us feel.

 

"This has been a historic day for America. My faith in our great country has been somewhat restored. It seems that more than a few US Senators from both parties still respect their fellow citizens and have their interest at heart. But most of all, we have seen that the country is not yet a nation of sheep - that citizens who love their country can still rise to the occasion and make their voices heard."

 

Ron suggested that citizens immediately begin looking for primary opponents for the Senators who voted for cloture and for amnesty today and who are up for re-election in 2008.

 

I have marked everybody with an asterisk whose term runs out in 2008.

 

LET'S KEEP THE PRESSURE ON AND KEEP THE AMNESTY DOWN,

[Cobra 76 two 2,677]

AWESOME!!!

[Koliadko 207]

Good to see Burr and Dole on the list that voted against last year and this year.

[Garys4598 1,065]

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

[MD_Willington 11]

hey no surprises from WA state..

 

Osama momma Murray & C#ntwell

[Deamon 0]

Do a little dance!!!