Luis Gutierrez

Key Democrat Praises Rubio's 'Sincere Conversion' On Immigration Reform

Sahil Kapur | May 23, 2012, 5:49AM

An election-year effort by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to advance a scaled-back DREAM Act is drawing praise from Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), the Democrats' most vocal crusader for comprehensive immigration reform.

"The problem [on immigration reform] has never been the Democratic Party. The problem has been Republican votes," Gutiérrez told TPM in an interview Tuesday. "And Rubio is the first light reaching out of the tunnel. So I wish him success."

Rubio has yet to release his bill, but he says it will offer legal residency to some undocumented immigrants raised in the United States and give them the opportunity to seek citizenship through the regular channels.

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DREAM Act

Are Democrats Falling For Rubio's Trap On The DREAM Act?

Sahil Kapur | May 14, 2012, 4:42AM

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)

As he prepares to release his scaled-back version of the DREAM Act, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is simultaneously laying the groundwork to blame the White House for its impending failure -- and Democrats appear to be falling into his trap. It's election-year jujitsu for Rubio, who is helping the GOP court Hispanic voters and keeping the door open to the vice presidency.

"One of the things that has already been documented is that the White House has been -- the articles that have been written, two or three by now -- the White House has been calling in DREAM Act advocates and asking them, almost ordering them, not to work with me on this issue," Rubio told Laura Ingraham last Thursday on her radio show. "They have been counting on using this issue as a wedge issue in October to drive up turnout."

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DREAM Act

Harry Reid To Rubio: Stop Talking And Release Your DREAM Act

Sahil Kapur | May 13, 2012, 9:30AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Congress's top Democrat told the Spanish-language Univision network that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) ought to stop talking about his scaled-back DREAM Act and put his ideas to paper.

In an interview that aired Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) accused the freshman Republican of selling his proposal in a duplicitous manner. He said he's open to supporting it, although he was cold to the idea of omitting the promise of citizenship to DREAMers.

"I'm glad that Marco is doing something. I think that's significant," Reid said. "But the problem is, right now there has not been a single word put on paper, not a word. And remember, in anything we do in life, the devil is in the details. So let's see what Marco's going to come up with. ... If he has something better and it's something that I think is going to be okay, I will be happy to support it. But let's stop this nonsense of talking about it. He talks to one group this way, another group another way. Put it in writing."

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Marco Rubio

White House To Rubio: Don't Blame Obama If Your DREAM Act Fails

Sahil Kapur | April 30, 2012, 5:55AM

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FLA).

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is angling to blame President Obama for the looming failure of his watered-down DREAM Act, and the White House is strongly objecting to that implication, insisting that Rubio's problem is with his own party, not the president.

"The notion that somehow the president or Democrats would be the roadblock to any progress on immigration is ridiculous," a White House official told TPM. "If this proposal fails, the reason will be the Republicans."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied Rubio's charge that the White House has been "actively trying to torpedo my efforts" on a compromise DREAM Act, as Roll Call reported. The aide said the White House would need to see an actual proposal before weighing in.

"We can't speculate on what may or may not be in the proposal. There is no proposal," the official said. "So there's nothing that we can be trying to torpedo."

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Mitt Romney

Boehner To Rubio: DREAM On, Dude!

Brian Beutler | April 26, 2012, 3:11PM

In another indication that Republicans will have a hard time eating into the Democrats' advantage with Hispanic voters, House Speaker John Boehner subtly warned Republicans: There's no way we can pass a modified version of the DREAM Act now.

"There's always hope," Boehner said. "I did talk to Sen. Rubio about his idea, and he gave me some particulars about how this would work. I found it of interest. But the problem with this issue is that we're operating in a very hostile political environment and to deal with a very difficult issue like this I think it would be difficult at best."

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Barack Obama

Will Romney Become Obama's Weapon Against The GOP?

Sahil Kapur | April 24, 2012, 11:44AM

President Barack Obama and Senior Adviser David Axelrod

Mitt Romney lurched ever closer to the political center Monday, in a move that presages both dramatic implications on Capitol Hill and growing tensions between Romney and his GOP allies in Congress.

We've seen several signs that Romney is recalibrating for the general election in recent weeks -- he tacitly backed Democrats' equal-pay law and now articulates more widely his support for the principle behind the DREAM Act. But for the first time Monday, he waded into an ongoing legislative battle -- over student loans -- and sided with President Obama and the Democrats against House and Senate Republicans.

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Joe Manchin

Man On A Wire: Joe Manchin's Two-Step Alienates Dems And Fails To Convince Republicans

Brian Beutler | April 20, 2012, 12:52PM

Updated at 2:05 p.m.

Sen. Joe Manchin's may think running for re-election as a Democrat while remaining uncommitted to President Obama will buy him cover with ... somebody. But it's not with Republicans.

"What a difference one Democratic Senator's upcoming re-election and three years of failed economic policies by the Democrats makes," emails Brian Walsh, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement. "But no amount of election-year rhetoric from Senator Manchin will cause voters in West Virginia to forget that three years ago he unabashedly supported President Obama, while predicting great things for West Virginia under his Administration. Instead of trying to put distance between he and the President, Senator Manchin should be more focused on a simple, three word message to his constituents - 'I am sorry.'"

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Mitt Romney

Why Florida Was A Dangerous Test Case For Romney's General Election Prospects

Brian Beutler | February 2, 2012, 5:41AM

Mitt Romney

The fight for Florida's fifty delegates was more than just a key test for the four remaining Republican presidential hopefuls. It also took the GOP's three year experiment with far-right politics into a more appropriate laboratory -- a state where the voters didn't reflect the party's base as neatly as they did in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

And though Mitt Romney trampled his opponents and solidified his status as the nominee-in-waiting, Florida was also a wake-up call. To win so resoundingly, Romney had to inch away from conservative movement dogma for the first time since he began his candidacy.

It wasn't easy.

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2012

Democrats Look To Protect Latino Vote From GOP Outreach

Benjy Sarlin | July 22, 2011, 1:34PM

DNC TV Ad "En quien confiar"

Democrats are looking to put the kibosh on conservative outreach efforts to Latino voters before they start.

The DNC's first major ad buy of the season is a Spanish-language ad running in areas with high concentrations of Latino voters around the country. The new spot comes just two days after the Republican National Committee and Karl Rove's Super PAC, American Crossroads, launched their own ad campaigns aimed at the key Democratic voting bloc in battleground states like Florida and Colorado.

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DREAM Act

Senate Democrats Renew Push For DREAM Act

Megan Reback | June 28, 2011, 5:03PM

Seeking to breathe new life into its prospects, on Tuesday Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) chaired the first-ever Senate hearing on the DREAM Act. The bill, which was initially proposed in different form in 2001, would grant citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants who "have maintained good moral character since entering the U.S.," and who either attend college or serve in the U.S. armed forces.

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Immigration

Senate Democrats Return To DREAM Act Despite Long Odds

Benjy Sarlin | May 11, 2011, 12:20PM

Following up on President Obama's new focus on immigration reform, Senate Democrats are renewing a drive to pass the DREAM Act, a bill that would grant a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who attend college or serve in the military.

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Lame duck sesion

Top 5 Lame Duck Losers For 2010

Brian Beutler | December 24, 2010, 8:27AM

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

Until the next Congress starts, the media will have little to prattle on about besides the Democrats lame duck accomplishments. Already lost in the coverage are two key facts: 1.) The Dems' victories came at the expense of Republicans, many of whom really blew it these past few weeks; and 2.) The Democrats didn't win everything.

Here's our list of the lame duck's top five losers.

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Barack Obama

Top 5 Lame Duck Winners For 2010

Brian Beutler | December 24, 2010, 8:25AM

President Barack Obama

Republicans attacked it as a perversion of democracy, and used it as an excuse to continue to vote against Dem priorities. Democrats recognized it as their last chance to accomplish much of anything for the next two years. People in the media mistook it for a Barack Obama renaissance.

Certainly Democrats accomplished more than most people expected they would these last several weeks. But between the victories and the compromises and the defeats, it's hard to keep track of who came out on top.

Here's a list of the lame duck's big winners to help you sort it all out.

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Lisa Murkowski

Murkowski On Voting With Dems: No Biggie!

Brian Beutler | December 23, 2010, 8:45AM

One of the lame duck's biggest surprises was how reliably Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted with Democrats. Her "yes" votes on DREAM and DADT repeal arguably put her to the left of Democrats Jon Tester and Joe Manchin -- during the lame duck, at least.

As she darted out of the Senate chamber Wednesday afternoon TPM asked her if those votes would've been harder to cast if she'd never been primaried and was still a member of GOP leadership.

"Nah," she said, as the elevator doors closed.

So I guess that answers that.

Joe Manchin

Manchin Apologizes For Missing DADT Vote To Attend Family Christmas Party

Eric Kleefeld | December 21, 2010, 5:31PM

Joe Manchin

Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has been subjected to much public criticism after he was absent for this past weekend's votes on the DREAM Act and the successful repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in order to attend a family Christmas party -- which his office described as "a family obligation that he just could not break -- is now apologizing for the fumble.

West Virginia MetroNews Network reports:

"Let me apologize to anybody and everybody within our listening and reading areas. I'm very sorry for missing the two votes," Manchin said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Manchin says his oldest daughter is divorced and has one child from that first marriage. She and her ex-husband take turns when it comes to custody on the Christmas holiday.

...

"Saturday was our Christmas and Saturday evening was our Christmas dinner. I got up Sunday and came back to Washington to make the votes I had to make," he said.

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DREAM Act

DREAM Act Dies In The Senate

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 18, 2010, 11:34AM

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

By a vote of 55 to 41, a cloture vote on the DREAM Act failed in the Senate this morning. That brings an end to the push for the legislation -- which would provide a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants who serve in the military or earn college degrees -- until the 112th Congress, which will convene Jan. 5.

That Congress will have more Republicans than this one did, which doesn't bode well for the prospects of the DREAM Act passing in 2011. As expected, Republicans lined up to stop the cloture vote on DREAM, fearful of being singed by a conservative base that has zero tolerance for immigration reform beyond the type favored in the Grand Canyon State.

Ironically -- or perhaps predictably in the current Senate environment -- DREAM was a bipartisan bill when it was introduced in the Senate in 2007 by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). Now, defeat of the bill has fallen along largely partisan lines as expected.

But there were a few who jumped ship -- Republican Sens. Dick Lugar (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Bob Bennett (UT) voted yes on cloture. Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (AR), Jon Tester (MT), Ben Nelson (NE), Kay Hagan (NC), and Max Baucus (MT) all voted no. Jim Bunning (R-KY), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) were absent.

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

DADT Repeal & DREAM Act Get Their Day In The Senate Today

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 18, 2010, 8:44AM

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

The Senate will act on two important pieces of President Obama's progressive legislative agenda today: the DREAM Act and the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers. By the end of the day, the path to final passage is expected to be set for DADT repeal, while DREAM is expected to languish for another Congress to pass.

Starting at around 10:30 this morning, the Senate will take up a cloture vote on DREAM. Cloture -- voted in by a 60-senator super majority -- is required to cut off debate and move a bill to final passage in the Senate. DREAM, which would provide legal status for illegal immigrants who serve in the military or earn college degrees, is not expected to hit that mark, effectively scrapping the bill for the time being.

That will set the stage for a cloture vote on a standalone DADT repeal bill, which proponents say is destined for passage. That will be the first step toward ending the nearly two-decade practice of allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military, but not if anyone who works with them knows they're gay. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who has been the driving force behind lining up the votes for DADT repeal, says he has the 60 he needs and most observers expect there to be little drama today.

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Spending

A Primer On The Fallout Of OmnibusFAIL

Brian Beutler | December 17, 2010, 11:30AM

President Barack Obama meets with Democratic and Republican leaders

Late last night, Harry Reid's plan to get the federal government funded through the end of the fiscal year went up in flames, burning months and months of work by Senate appropriators and their staffs. To avert a government shutdown, Reid agreed to work out a federal funding plan with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- Congress will agree to continue funding the government at its current levels through some yet-to-be-determined point next year. The "continuing resolution" will likely pass the Senate in a blink, the lights will stay on, and then they can move on to other priorities: The DREAM Act, Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal, and START.

Here's how last night's melodrama impacts policy and the politics on Capitol Hill:

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Don't Ask, Don't Tell

DADT Moves In The Senate: Reid To File Cloture Tonight, Vote On Saturday

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 16, 2010, 7:56PM

On the Senate floor just now, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the Senate will begin to vote as soon as Saturday on a bill to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. That puts it ahead of the START treaty, as proponents of repeal had requested.

"We've got to move this all along," Reid said from the floor.

Reid will also file for cloture on the DREAM Act. That means both bills should come up for a procedural vote on Saturday. The vote on the DREAM Act will come first, followed by the vote on DADT.

Democrats expect the cloture vote on the DREAM Act to fail. Next will come a cloture vote on DADT. "If DREAM gets 60 to end debate then we would have final passage Sunday," a Reid aide told TPM. "If DREAM fails, but DADT gets 60 then it's the same case -- final vote Sunday."

Though progressives will see the votes on DADT and DREAM as key victories, Reid's other announcement will likely be seen as a victory for the Republicans. Reid announced that despite the bipartisan process behind the omnibus spending bill, he could not get any Republican votes for the massive omnibus spending bill. So he's scrapping it in favor of a short-term spending package that will keep the government up and running through early next year.

So for those paying close attention, here's the schedule of votes moving forward: DREAM, DADT repeal, short-term spending bill and, finally START treaty.

DREAM Act

Poll: Majority Of Americans Would Vote For DREAM Act

Jon Terbush | December 10, 2010, 10:00AM

The Senate may be deadlocked over what to do with the DREAM Act in the lame duck session, but if the general public were able to vote on the immigration bill, at least one poll suggests it would pass.

According to a new Gallup poll, a narrow majority of Americans would vote to pass the DREAM Act. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they favored the measure -- which would grant legal residency to illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children if they graduate high school and complete two years of college or military service -- while 42% said they were opposed.

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Republicans

DADT No More? Republicans Threaten To Block All Dem Initiatives

Brian Beutler | December 1, 2010, 9:15AM

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Just hours after Democrats and Republicans agreed to bargain on tax cuts, and fewer hours still after Defense Secretary Robert Gates implored Congress to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell this year, word leaked that Republicans aren't really interested in any of it -- a major repudiation of Gates' authority.

According to a letter delivered to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this morning, Republicans will block all debate on all legislation until the tax cut impasse is bridged and the federal government has been fully funded -- even if it means days tick by and the Senate misses its opportunity to pass DADT, an extension of unemployment insurance and other Dem items.

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SEIU

Liberal Groups Launch Spanish-Language Radio Ad Attacking GOP

Eric Lach | September 28, 2010, 11:10AM

The SEIU, Mi Familia Vota and America's Voice today launched a Spanish-language radio ad in six states, highlighting Republican opposition to the DREAM act, among other issues.

Officially titled the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, the Dream Act would allow a conditional permanent residency for students who graduate from high school and earn or are on track to earn a college degree. It would help potentially millions of illegal immigrants who were brought here illegally by their parents as young children and attended schools in the U.S. all their life.

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Immigration

Democrats To Thrust Immigration Back Into Spotlight

Christina Bellantoni | September 17, 2010, 8:53AM

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ)

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in the coming weeks will introduce a new comprehensive immigration reform bill that will include a pathway to citizenship, reviving a debate that could help Democrats in the short-term but could also be as brutal as it's been in years past. President Obama is framing the issue to the crucial Latino voting bloc as one party is with them, and the other is against them.

Menendez's bill is based on the bipartisan framework developed by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), according to a plan revealed last night as the White House released some details of President Obama's private huddle with Menendez, Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

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Immigration

DREAM Dashed? Dems Divided Over Bill To Give Green Cards To Undocumented Students

Christina Bellantoni | July 27, 2010, 6:11PM

Democrats had until recently been keeping alive the possibility of considering a comprehensive immigration reform measure this year, but now that they acknowledge it isn't politically possible, the party is fracturing over whether to tackle a smaller portion of the problem in the form of the DREAM Act.

Officially titled the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, the bill has been discussed for years as a reasonable change that members from both parties can get behind. In short, the Dream Act would allow a conditional permanent residency for students who graduate from high school and earn or are on track to earn a college degree. It would help potentially millions of illegal immigrants who were brought here illegally by their parents as young children and attended schools in the U.S. all their life.

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