Fate of Senate Immigration Bill in Doubt

The politicians are riding the riding the tiger when it comes to the proposed immigration reform. The public does not support the current proposals. And they don't trust the Congress, or this president, to do the right thing, on any issue:

U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday accused Democrats of trying to rush a vote on immigration reform, casting doubt on the fate of the White House-backed bill that would tighten border security and legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) said he wanted to close debate on the bill by this week's end despite Republicans' objections, which could doom the fragile compromise legislation that backers say would help fix a broken immigration system through which millions of illegal immigrants have slipped into the United States.

During last night's Republican presidential debate John McCain was beat over the head with the Senate's proposal, in which he was instrumental in drafting:

U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday accused Democrats of trying to rush a vote on immigration reform, casting doubt on the fate of the White House-backed bill that would tighten border security and legalize millions of illegal immigrants.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wanted to close debate on the bill by this week's end despite Republicans' objections, which could doom the fragile compromise legislation that backers say would help fix a broken immigration system through which millions of illegal immigrants have slipped into the United States.

Even a non-conservative like Giuliani was beating up McCain:

Mr. McCain found himself at odds with former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, who each criticized the Senate plan as woefully lacking in border security and immigration enforcement measures, including a uniform method to identify immigrants and limits on certain types of visas.

“It’s a typical Washington mess,” Mr. Giuliani said in his first heated face-off of the campaign with his past political ally, Mr. McCain. “Everybody compromises, four or five compromises, and the compromises leave you with the following conclusion. The litmus test you should have for legislation is, is it going to make things better? And when you look at these compromises, it is quite possible it will make things worse.”

Other candidates had choice words for Bush and his immigration policies, among other issues:

More so than in previous appearances, the candidates were willing to criticize President Bush and his administration. Representative Duncan Hunter of California ripped the immigration legislation, calling it the “the Bush-McCain-Kennedy” plan; Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado said Mr. Bush would “never darken the doorstep of the White House” if Mr. Tancredo were elected president because of the candidate’s anger over White House immigration and education policies and the Medicare prescription drug benefit.