Just say “no” to pork.

And the Democrats did. Too bad the Republican Senate is willing to put special interests before the public interest.

In a testament to how broken things are in Washington, the Senate last week failed to pass the compromise legislation on immigration reform. In a “test” vote to see if the legislation would fly, the measure was defeated 60-38. In his radio address this weekend, President Bush accused Democrats of using “blocking tactics” to prevent the passage of the bill.

Oh really?? Well, lets take a look back at that vote on the bill… 38 “yea” votes, 37 DEMOCRATS, 1 Independent. 60 “nay” votes, 56 REPUBLICANS, 4 Democrats. Sure looks to me like the Republicans were the ones who defeated their own bill. So what were the “blocking tactics” that the Democrats used? They refused to allow nearly 400 amendments to be added to the bill.

Amendments are the Republican Senate’s favorite method for adding “pork” to otherwise beneficial legislation. So for example, a Senator in Kansas (with no borders with a foreign country) can tack a “pet project” onto a “border security” bill. This is how fiascos like the “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska came to be. So when the vote came on Friday to forward this bill to the Senate Judiciary committee, Senate Democrats chose to take a stand and prevent a bill, weighed down with unnecessary amendments, from continuing on as proposed. And the Republicans refused to forward the bill without the amendments attached. The result? The Dems. voted FOR an unadulterated bill, and the Repubs. voted AGAINST their own bill.

Proof positive that the old adage is right on the money: “If the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of Progress? Congress.”