February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
It was a resolution congratulating Graceland for attaining the status of a national historical landmark.
The Senate can be that kind of place.
It can also be a political cockpit where teeth are bared and few holds are barred.
As fond memories of Elvis give way to concerns over the nation’s immigration future, this will become starkly evident.
The battle for comprehensive reform has been jumping hurdles thus far.
Monday’s successful progress through the Senate Judiciary Committee was, for sure, a leap over an especially high one.
But that’s it for hurdles.
Now, the reformers face three fences in the shape of the full Senate, the House/Senate conference phase, and, by no means least, the critical gaze of a president holding a pen that will either veto or approve a landmark immigration bill.
Monday’s 12-6 vote by the Judiciary panel does provide pro-immigrant reformers in the Senate with a package worth defending against those who would shut down the nation’s borders and do little to otherwise resolve the present immigration mess.
But the battle ahead will be a hard slog. Immigration is a hugely divisive issue, not only between parties, but within the Republican Party in particular.
And it is within the ranks of the GOP that reform’s fate will be ultimately decided. Will the result be a landmark, or just a gouge in the landscape after reform falls at the final fence?
We should soon know the answer.