Immigration Bill Bleeds Out on Senate Floor

This time it really is dead!

Some Senators reportedly didn't vote until the last moment, waiting to see how the issue would go, then joined the majority. Some changed sides at the very last moment. Sam Brownback (R - Kansas) voted "Yea" initially, then changed his vote eleven minutes later when he realized the bill would lose. Then this:

At 2:10 pm ET, Brownback's Senate office issued a press release entitled "BROWNBACK VOTES AGAINST CLOTURE ON IMMIGRATION BILL," but it didn't mention he voted for the bill today before he voted against it. “We need comprehensive immigration reform, but the country is not accepting of this bill,” Brownback stated in the press release. “We need to listen to the American people on both timing and substance. We need to help ‘the widow and orphan and foreigner amongst us,’ but must do so in a way and at a time the American people support. This is not yet the right way. We should let the topic rest for now while we work diligently to secure our borders. Americans support legal immigration, not illegal immigration. We desire to be compassionate but demand adherence to the rule of law.”

A stunning example of the kind of people that are "leading" this nation. Coward, you're finished.

Here's how the rest voted.

The House never even looked at an immigration bill this year, waiting instead for the Senate to do something. Disgraceful.

But there's some hope:

Sen. Elizabeth H. Dole, R-N.C., said many Americans "don't have confidence" that borders, especially with Mexico, will be significantly tightened. "It's not just promises but proof that the American people want," Dole said.

And:

[South Carolina R. Senator Jim] DeMint told reporters, "I think the only victory here is for the American people and, symbolically, a government of the people and for the people. The people responded to this issue in a very emotional and just a very engaged way, which changed the minds of many people here in the Senate."

DeMint said he hoped "we'll proceed with the security and enforcement aspects of this bill, and that will pave the way of how we solve some of the other problems."

Michelle Malkin says:

Thanks to the stalwart, true leaders in the Senate — especially Sens. Sessions, DeMint, Vitter, Inhofe, Cornyn, and their staffs. Thanks to the House GOP members who made their opposition known. Thanks to the Loud Folks on the right side of the dial. Thanks to the Loud Folks at The Corner, RedState, Human Events, Townhall, Kaus, N.Z. Bear, my colleagues at Hot Air, and all the enforcement-first bloggers out there who weighed in. Thanks to the analysts at the Heritage Foundation, the enforcement/assimilation proponents at The Manhattan Institute, George Borjas, Kris Kobach, Eagle Forum, 9/11 Families, FAIR and Numbers USA. Thanks to the immigration enforcement activists who’ve been at this for years and decades before this one battle began. Most importantly, thanks to all the ordinary “Loud Folks” who called, phoned, e-mailed, and blogged their opposition.

The American people have spoken, and so have our less-cowardly Senators:

• Close the borders and secure our nation. Build the fence.
• Enforce our existing immigration laws.
• Deport the backlogs and ALL criminal aliens.

And do it now.

More on topic reading:

• Hot Air » Blog Archive » 10:30 10:50 a.m.: Cloture 2 — Something Wicked This Way Comes; Update: Ensign will vote no, Cochran ...
• Michelle Malkin
• A Lady's Ruminations: Don't Mess with the US
• Amanda Carpenter at Townhall
• Webloggin - Kennedy, Reid, Graham, Others Clueless as the American Voter Prevails