America lives another day!

From The Washington Post:

A tenuous compromise to overhaul the nation's immigration laws collapsed last night when senators from both parties refused to cut off debate and move to a final vote, handing the unlikely alliance of Democratic leaders and President Bush a setback on a major domestic priority.

The defeat came after months of painstaking negotiations and weeks of debate as a 45 to 50 procedural vote fell well short of the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) then pulled the bill from the floor, while holding out hope that the Senate could resurrect the measure within weeks.

"There's no reason to be upset. I think that we have to look toward passing this bill," Reid said after 9 p.m., even as he catalogued a long list of futile efforts at compromise. "It's something that needs to be done."

But he was quick to place responsibility for the defeat on Bush, who had made passage of the measure a top legislative goal. "The headlines are going to be, 'The President Fails Again,' " Reid said. "It's his bill."

Note that the spin is already beginning. This is Bush's bill and his failure. Well it was a bill which the president wanted and it is a failure for him, but it is also a massive failure for the Democrats. After all this bill would have given them total dominance of the federal and almost all of the state governments for the next century and a half. It would have killed the Republican Party as dead as the Whigs. It would have put Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.

Yes, President Bush will take a political hit on this, but so what? He is a lame duck in the last half of his last term and his approval numbers are already nearing the single digits. What did he have to lose. Harry Reid, on the other hand, is only in his first (and probably only) term as Senate majority leader and has just proven that he is incapable of leading.

AND the general public has just gotten a lesson in why it is important to elect Republicans. Look at how the cloture vote went:

Thirty-seven Democrats, seven Republicans and independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) voted to break the filibuster. Thirty-eight Republicans, 11 Democrats and independent Sen. Bernard Sanders (Vt.) voted against it. Maryland's two Democratic senators voted yes. Virginia's Republican senator, John W. Warner, and its Democratic senator, James Webb, voted no.

Thirty-eight Republicans voted to slay this beast while thirty-seven Democrats voted to keep it alive. Despite all the earmarks and scandals and all the stupid things Bush has done, or that you think he has done, the fact is that last night Republicans saved the United States of America while Democrats tried to kill it. Which party deserves to be in control of the government?

Of course it isn't over. The White Hose says it isn't over and the bill's chief Senate supporter Mary Jo Kopechne's Killer (D-Mass.) says it isn't over so we can not afford to relax our vigilance. However it is over for today so we are allowed a little celebration.

Oh, and I would be remiss if I failed to mention a bit of extremely positive fallout from this whole mess. This has effectively taken out John McCain. While I don't believe that he ever had a chance of being elected president, he really doesn't now. In fact now he probably couldn't even be reelected to the Senate.

So after next year's front-loaded primaries we will have seen our last of John McCain (R-Himself) and without McCain to lead him around by the nose his detestable little butt-boy Lindsey Graham (R-John McCain) will probably have a nervous breakdown and be taken to an asylum spend the rest of his life doing interesting things like walking up and down the hall and looking out the window.

All things considered this is a good day. Enjoy it because we may not get too many until Jan. 2009 when Fred Thompson is sworn in as our next president.