The Beginning Of Compromise ... Or The End?

What are House Republicans so afraid of?

If the Senate bill on comprehensive immigration reform bill is so horrendous that it's not even worth saving as the basis for a compromise, why not take it up for a vote and vote it down?  Take the bill off the table completely and start from scratch, if you really have the courage of your supposed convictions.

But they don't.  Even doing that would be real legislating, and these clowns are not all about real legislating.  They're all about holding onto power, even if that is largely the power to say "no" in an age that is otherwise turning against you.  Which is why they're deep in the process of trying to figure out a way out of their dilemma.

At the heart of their dilemma is the question of a pathway to citizenship for the 11 undocumented immigrants here in this country.  Their Tea Party supporters won't accept any pathway, even though the country as a whole supports one (albeit with conditions, a battle that progressives conceded long ago).  The immigration issue thus forces them to confront the central question concerning the party's fate:  do Republicans want their party to be a national party, or a faction?  And the Senate bill, which is far more enforcement-heavy than it needs to be in an era of record deportations and voluntary departures, threatens to expose their own hypocrisy by putting a solution on the table after years of shameless conservative exploitation of the issue (and thanks to Jennifer Rubin, of all people, for making this point and other generally sane ones).

The inconvenient truth about the Senate bill is that it is not only bipartisan enough to have attracted the votes of 68 Senators, but bipartisan enough that, if put to an open vote in the House, it would sail through with plenty of votes to spare.  But, because it offers a path to citizenship, it doesn't have the support of "a majority of the majority," and John Boehner would forfeit his Speakership if he allowed such a vote.  Boehner, however, knows that the House cannot afford to do nothing when the nation is clearly expecting it to do something to resolve the issue.

Unfortunately, the emerging resolution is not encouraging.  It consists largely of a effort to cherry-pick the issue by offering a citizenship pathway to DREAMers, an increase in high-skilled employment visas at the expense of current family visa quotas, and enforcement that would go beyond any ability of the nation to pay for it.  Such a bill, if enacted, would further divide immigrant families and bankrupt the nation even further.  It may appease the few remaining moderate Republicans on this issue, like Ross Douthat, but it will never appease the tea-baggers, and would be a non-starter both for Senate Democrats and President Obama.

So, when it comes to CIR, are we at the beginning of compromise, or the end?  Sadly, at this point, I'm inclined to think the latter.  But, I'm open to being proved wrong.  And I am confident that, one way or another, CIR will be a reality soon. The arc of history, and the needs of our county and those who live in its shadows, both demand it.

UPDATE, 7/14/13:  It looks like Mr. Douthat is getting it.