******UPDATE****64 votes for Cloture……….

Today’s the day! Will the (A) Bill stay or go?

Even if the White House gets the 60 it needs (and I’m told by some staffers it just might), the fight up the road is going to be a bear!

“A check by The Washington Times found Mr. Bush is poised to deliver on that promise.

Opponents of the bill counted about 32 senators prepared to block the bill and another dozen senators they said would swing today’s vote. But The Times found four of those swing votes said they will vote to revive the bill today: Republican Sens. Christopher S. Bond of Missouri and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and Democratic Sens. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Press reports showed others have also said they are likely to vote to revive the bill, including Sen. Richard M. Burr, North Carolina Republican.

But several of those, such as Mr. Bond and Mr. Bingaman, said their support today doesn’t mean they will vote for the bill in the end.

Mr. Bond has an amendment, expected to receive a vote as part of the new bargain, which would allow illegal aliens legal status but prevent them from obtaining citizenship. A spokeswoman for Mr. Bond said if the amendment doesn’t pass, he will later vote to block the bill.

Still, the White House was happy to live to fight on.

“Our intelligence is that the votes will be there because enough members of the Senate appreciate that the status quo is unacceptable and that without immigration reform, they’re not going to get the tough new border security and work site enforcement measures that we need to get control of the border,” Mr. Kaplan said.

But Mr. DeMint said that meant that Mr. Bush was “in effect holding real reforms hostage to amnesty.”

With other tight votes expected later this week on amendments, the administration is making a full-court press.

Mr. Kaplan said the White House will not take an active role in pushing for or against most amendments, but they are backing an amendment to make corrections to the bill and are opposing another designed to protect taxpayer information and lessen the requirements on businesses to comply with the law.

A wide range of groups — from home builders to civil liberties groups to Hispanic immigrant advocates — supports the taxpayer and employer amendment, but the Bush administration says it would weaken the new employer penalties built into the bill.

Mr. Bush has made phone calls to senators, and two Cabinet secretaries have been such frequent lobbyists on Capitol Hill for the bill that Mr. Kaplan joked “they’ve basically been tenants up there for the last two or three months.”

That’s led to charges of arm-twisting and deals being cut.

“The American people have been working day in and day out to make the Senate understand they do not want this bill, and the administration is up on Capitol Hill trying to buy votes from senators,” said Rosemary Jenks, government relations director for NumbersUSA. “When we see the final vote count, we’ll know where to look for favors.”

Again, another example of a Government by the people preparing to stick it to the people. Perilous times we live in.

UPDATE: Via an email, the lunacy is defined here:

“Perhaps the most significant shift came from three of the bill’s Republican architects: Sens. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Mel Martinez (Fla.). Under the current legislation, virtually all of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants would be granted provisional legal status immediately, provided that within 18 months they pay a fine, cover processing fees and submit to a criminal background check to get a new five-year “Z Visa.” If they wanted legal permanent residence, heads of illegal-immigrant households would have to return to their home countries to apply for a green card.”

Er……how about just enforcing the law and make them leave now?

Simple nonsense folks!

UPDATE II: Bad vibes, read it all.

UPDATE III: Well at least now according to the President it’s officially an “Amnesty Bill”.

UPDATE IV: John Cornyn, a hugh supporter of Bush in 2000, 2004 and more than anyone cannot be called “names”:

“I was forwarded a copy of a transcript of an interview with a White House official yesterday commenting on some remarks I made surrounding the immigration bill.

I have argued that the current bill sets DHS up for failure because it requires DHS to grant full work and travel authorization to illegal aliens within 24 hours of their application whether they have completed a background check or not.

That is the text of the current immigration bill.

The White House yesterday told reporters that I was perpetuating “misunderstanding and mythology” about the provision.

First, let me quote from the text of the provision. It reads:

601 (h) (2) Timing of Probationary Benefits.—No probationary benefits shall be issued to an alien until the alien has passed all appropriate background checks or the end of the next business day, whichever is sooner.

That is what the bill says. I know people that draft language believe it is the perfect draft and believe it should attain mythical status, but this is pretty straightforward. If an alien applies, he gets legal status, full travel and work authorization, no later than the next day.

Now, the White House official believes that this provision is workable because, as he says, “Four of the layers of that background check are almost invariably completed within 24 hours.”

Almost always completing a background check within 24 hours is not always completing a background check within 24 hours. Additionally, he acknowledges that one of the checks takes longer than 24 hours. So by his own admission, DHS will be granting full legal rights to nearly every applicant even though they who have NOT completed a background check.

This is not what the American people are hearing when they are selling this bill. The American people are being told that aliens will have to pass a background check before they are granted legal status. This is not true according to the text of the underlying bill and it is not factually possible according to the lead negotiator from the White House.

Not to be deterred by fact, the White House official believes this should be of no concern because if anything comes up in the background check beyond the 24 hours then DHS will declare the person ineligible and deport them.

Certainly that is a concept we all can support, that is if someone is ineligible they should be deported.

My concern is the gulf between the promise being made to the American people and the likelihood that that promise will actually be carried out. The White House negotiator says that this is of no concern because they will just declare them ineligible and deport them. But, the question is will they? If they already have this capability why has nothing been done about criminal aliens already?

Right now there are approximately 600,000 fugitive absconders, including criminal fugitives, in the United States. DHS has created a unit designed solely to track down, apprehend and deport these fugitives. However, there is no appreciable dent in this number. And DHS has information on these people as well.

But let’s keep in mind that as the Department of Homeland Security is so diligently tracking down the thousands of criminal aliens that their all-inclusive background checks have uncovered, that there are a myriad of others changes which they will have to affect.

1) hire, train, and deploy up to 20,000 border patrol agents

2) implement a worker verification system to screen over 200 million workers throughout the country

3) build up to 370 miles of fencing and 300 miles of vehicle barriers.

4) deploy the secure border initiative

5) deploy the exit monitoring system of US Visit

6) process 12 million initial applicants for Z visas

(7) build 105 radar and camera towers

(8) detain all removable aliens caught on the southern border utilizing detention facilities with a capacity of only 31,500 people per day

All this while keeping up with current demand in applications and preparing to re-implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative which clogged our passport process and proved the government’s inability to handle such enormous undertakings as the one proposed.

That’s a tough sell to say the least, Mr. President. Especially from an Administration that, as of two years ago, was doing absolutely nothing to beef up border security. It was routinely objecting to Congressional requests for more border agents and other border enforcement measures, and doing nothing to increase other infrastructure improvements needed to enforce our laws.

So once again, I fear that like in 1986, we are promising something to the American people that we cannot deliver. We should slow down, read this bill, and make sure it works.”

Amen…

UPDATE V: As noted above, the Senate got 64 for cloture.

“The Senate voted Tuesday to jump-start a stalled immigration measure to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants.

President Bush said the bill offered a “historic opportunity for Congress to act,” and appeared optimistic about its passage by week’s end.

The pivotal test-vote was 64-35 to revive the divisive legislation. It still faces formidable obstacles in the Senate, including bitter opposition by GOP conservatives and attempts by some waverers in both parties to revise its key elements.”

It’s important to remember that this isn’t the approval of the bill, but shuts down debate. That vote will happen later in the week. Additionally Brownback just killed his candidacy by a “Yea”.

By the way, the move at the House is “No way” unless a significant among of republicans come on board.

So it’s not over yet - close, but not over. The real vote is next week. Keep the calls coming!