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Quin Hillyer at the American Spectator likes the Mike Pence immigration reform bill:

"In short, the plan is ingenious. Not only should conservatives rally behind it, but so should the White House. It provides the president with a near-perfect escape from the rock-and-hard-place dilemma of trying to please, all at once, Hispanics, big business, and the mainstream Americans who insist that the first requirement of a guest is that the guest abide by our society's laws.

"Such insistence is absolutely the right thing. But it doesn't, by any means, require that Americans fail to exhibit our usual humaneness, nor does it require that we keep necessary jobs unfilled.

"In sum, the Pence bill offers security and prosperity in equal measure. You can't beat that."

Quin is certainly no pushover or Kool Aid drinker...the Pence folks I am sure are happy to have his support. 

Conservatives in the Senate today held together to defeat the Akaka bill which would have created a race-based government in Hawaii. Conservatives needed 41 votes today to kill the bill and they mustered just that number. The vote on cloture was 56-41.

Kudos to Lamar Alexander, Jon Kyl, John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions and Senate Leadership for holding the team together and defeating this unconstitutional and insulting bill.

Word on the Hill is that Senate Whip Mitch McConnell's office was particularly persuasive behind the scenes with fence-sitting members.

While this is a great victory, the 56 votes cast today in favor of race-based governing should worry conservatives. Supporters of this bill will be back soon. Watch for Akaka and Inouye to attempt to attach this bill quietly to other vehicles moving through the Senate.

UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist blogs the outcome:

It is a core moral and constitutional principle of the United States that equal protection of our laws and equal participation in our government should never again be denied to Americans because of race or ethnicity. And it is a clear provision of our Constitution that American states be guaranteed a “Republican Form of Government.” Both would be endangered by Senator Akaka’s Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, which was just defeated on the Senate floor moments ago.

Senator Akaka’s legislation would have created a new, independent government within our country – a government defined by and composed of a specific racial group. Worse still, Senator Akaka recently made clear that this race-based government would have been under no obligation to remain within the United States or to adhere to the most basic of our political principles: “[T]he governing entity will make a decision as to what happens to independence or returning to the monarchy.”

I am amazed and saddened that some would undo the great success story of Hawaiian assimilation into our country that we’ve seen since the people of Hawaii voted overwhelming to become America’s 50th state in 1959.

Vital issues of the greatest consequence face our Nation. If this to be another American Century, we must affirm and strengthen those principles and values that unite our people and oppose the fragmentation of our government and our society along racial and ethnic lines. That’s why I am proud to have voted to defeat Senator Akaka’s proposal and proud that the United States Senate has shown the common-sense to reject this divisive legislation once and for all.

Erica Little and Todd Gaziano of the Heritage Foundation point out that at the time Hawaiian was entering the Union, Native Hawaiians were adamant about being considered in the same way that all others are. In essence, Hawaiians at the time were adamant that their race not be part of the equation:

The people of Hawaii had the opportunity to raise an issue regarding separate rights for native Hawaiians. Not only did they fail to do so; they went to great lengths to convey that Hawaii did not and would not divide its people by race. That was the understanding of those in Congress and Hawaii who voted to bring Hawaii into these United States. Despite the distorted history of the S.147’s supporters, many Hawaiians with aboriginal ancestry still share that understanding today. They understand that S.147 will change their state from a “microcosm of America” to an environment that pits race against race.

So what has changed Senator Akaka?  

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades...conservatives lost their bid to attain 60 votes to repeal the unjust tax 57-41.

So far, this week in the Senate is shaking out as feared: loss on marriage amendment, loss on Death Tax...is the creation of a race-based government this afternoon pending? 

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced this morning that the Senate will vote on cloture on the Death Tax Repeal at 10:45 and then regardless of the outcome of that vote, will vote on the Akaka bill at 12:45.

Did conservatives muster the requisite 41 votes needed to kill race-based governing? Senate sources say it will be a razor thin margin...

In the meantime, read this entry on Red State that makes a valid point. Republicans don't deserve the majority if they let this pass. Granted, there are many outstanding conservatives in the Senate fighting this bill. But their challenge must be to sway the votes of the moderate faction of the caucus who seem intent on voting this majority right out of town. 

Finally, the White House has climbed down off the fence to oppose Akaka's race-based governing bill. In a June 7 letter from Assistant Attorney General William Moschella addresed to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the White House makes their opposition clear.

"The Administration strongly opposes passage of S. 147," reads the missive. "As the President has said, 'We must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples." This bill would reverse that great American tradition and divide people by their race."

The letter is in direct contradiction to Senator Daniel Akaka's claims on the Senate floor that the Administration had cleared the legislation. The letter goes on to cite e US Civil Rights Commission report that opposes the Akaka bill because it divides people by race.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid was carbon copied on the letter.

UPDATE: Read the uploaded letter here.

From my column today:

The taxpayer-funded organization plans to hold a news conference Thursday morning on the West Lawn to tout a bill many critics say would create the first ever race-based government in the United States.

The press conference is part of OHA’s extensive lobbying strategy. Already the group has spent more than $660,000 of taxpayer funds to hire the well-connected D.C. lobby shop Patton Boggs.

OHA wants its lobbying effort to pay off when the Senate votes on S. 147 (maybe as early as Thursday evening). Opponents of the bill need 41 votes to deny cloture and therefore kill it.

Multiple Hill sources confirm that opponents of the bill (a pet project of Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii) have absolutely no idea how that vote will go. This is one of those rare instances in the Senate where the outcome of a scheduled vote isn’t all but certain ahead of time. According to one Senate source, conservatives opposing Akaka may be within one vote of the requisite 41. That should encourage conservatives to keep cranking on all cylinders and apply the necessary pressure to the U.S. Senate.

Best news of the day...

UPDATE: Texas Senator John Cornyn: "Al Zarqawi has made his last video."

UPDATE: RSC Chairman Mike Pence: "I rejoice in the death of no man, but today I'll make an exception."  

...to provide Republican cover for Akaka's bill by taking the Senate floor to speak in defense of race-based governing.

We all know Stevens is a powerful man in the Senate -- his support has helped Akaka tremendously. 

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is on the Senate floor right now speaking against the Akaka bill. The bill, says Alexander, "is an assault on E Pluribus Unum." The bill "undermines our unity...it would undermine our history of being a nation based not upon race but upon common values of liberty, equal opportunity and democracy."

Exactly.

UPDATE: Akaka is on the floor defending his bill: "At the heart of it, this bill is about fairness and creating a process to achieve it."

UPDATE: Republicans are doing well to control floor time and oppose the Akaka bill. So far this afternoon Senators Alexander (who was outstanding and eloquent), Kyl, Craig, Sessions and Cornyn (on the way) are speaking against the bill. Only Byron Dorgan and Daniel Akaka have had the gall the defend the bill for the Dems.

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is reportedly a fence-sitter on the pending vote to create an unconstitutional race-based government in Hawaii. So is Susan Collins...

Someone should remind Brownback that he is a conservative and a good man who reveres the constitution. People expect more of him than this.

A vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment in the Senate today failed to garner support of even a majority of the Senate today, failing 49-48.

UPDATE: From the AP:

WASHINGTON - A constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage went down to Senate defeat Wednesday, but supporters said that several new votes for the measure represent progress that gives the GOP’s base reason to vote on Election Day.

Supporters failed to get the 60 votes required for the measure to survive a test vote. Had it survived, a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress would have been required to send an amendment to the states. It then would have had to be ratified by at least 38 state legislatures.

But they took solace in the fact that the idea received several new votes from Republican freshmen elected after the amendment received its last vote in 2004.

UPDATE: Republicans who joined Democrats in voting against the amendment included Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), John Sununu (R-NH), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI).

Chuck Hagel (R-NE) skipped the vote. 

Drudge today is linking to a Washington Times piece on the Akaka bill to create a race-based government.

From the article:

Hawaii Sen. Daniel K. Akaka thinks Hawaiians should be allowed to govern themselves as Native Americans and Alaskans do, and after seven years of pushing a bill to start the process, the Senate is expected to take it up this week.

Mr. Akaka says the bill is a way to give "indigenous" Hawaiians a sense of pride and a chance for sovereignty for the first time since 1893, when Queen Liliuokalani was deposed and lands were illegally seized by U.S. Marines and a cadre of sugar-plantation businessmen.

More:

The bill calls for an Office of Native Hawaiian Relations in the Department of the Interior, and a Native Hawaiian Interagency Coordinating Group to administer programs, a commission that would certify who are indigenous Hawaiians, and provides a process of reorganization of the Native Hawaiian governing entity.

"The bill will not authorize gaming in Hawaii. The bill will not allow private lands to be taken. The bill will not create a reservation in Hawaii," Mr. Akaka said.

But, according to Senate sources, at least one Republican Senator approached the bill's supporters including Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle to talk about the gambling issue. The supporters of the bill were asked to clarify that this would not lead to gambling in Hawaii but Lingle expressly declined that request.

A vote on the unconstitutional Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act is expected tomorrow evening.

If Senate conservatives overcome the odds this Thursday and invoke cloture on the Death Tax Repeal bill not only will the unjust and excessively punitive death tax be on the fast track to repeal, but a vote on the race-based creation of a new Native Hawaiian government will be delayed.

The Senate schedule currently calls for the consideration of the Akaka bill after the consideration of Death Tax repeal. If conservatives break a Democratic filibuster against the Death Tax Repeal the Senate will be forced to debate the Death Tax for an extended period of time -- leaving opponents of race-based governing more time to garner the necessary votes to kill the Akaka bill.

As reported below, opponents of Akaka are close...but I think need more time.

Word on the Hill is that some of those opponents will organize a press conference tomorrow to help rally the troops. Will it be too little too late? I hope not.

UPDATE: The presser is a go:

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) will hold a press conference on Wednesday, June 7 in S-219, the Capitol, to discuss their opposition to legislation that would create a racially-separate government for native Hawaiians living across the United States, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2005, S. 147.

Sens. Cornyn and Alexander will be joined by native Hawaiians who are in Washington to express their opposition to the legislation, and the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Gerald A. Reynolds. WHAT: U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Lamar Alexander hold press conference with native Hawaiians and Chairman of U.S. Civil Rights Commission to oppose Native Hawaiians Bill

WHEN: Wednesday, June 7 2:00 p.m.

The House Democratic Steering Committee is meeting today to consider whether or not to strip Rep. William Jefferson of his Committee slot.

UPDATE: Newt Gingrich says it is time to strip Jefferson of his Ways and Means Committee Post: 

As someone who led the pledge in the Contract with America for members of Congress to abide by the same laws as the rest of us, I have been following the case of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) with growing concern. The time has come for the House leadership to make clear that, in protesting the FBI's raid on Jefferson's congressional office, they are protecting the Constitution, not protecting corruption.

Nothing would send this message with more clarity than to move this week to strip Rep. Jefferson of his position on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. Simultaneously, the House Ethics Committee should begin proceedings leading to the possible expulsion of Jefferson from Congress. The Ethics Committee also should ask the Justice Department to cooperate in this effort to protect the House from corruption, and the Justice Department should agree. Like all of us, Rep. Jefferson has the presumption of innocence, and he should be allowed to defend himself. But as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he should be notified by leadership that if he fails to cooperate in timely manner to House actions, the House will protect its institutional integrity from behavior unbecoming of a member and intolerable to the People's House by moving to expel Jefferson.

A Senate vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to the Native Hawaiian bill is likely to occur this Thursday. Opponents of race-based governing need 41 votes to deny cloture and therefore kill the bill.

Various hill sources confirm that opponents of the Akaka bill have absolutely no idea how that vote will resolve itself. This is one of those rare instances in the Senate where the outcome of a scheduled vote is all but certain. According to one Senate source, opponents of race-based governing may be as close as one vote shy of the requisite 41 votes. That figure should be enough to get conservatives cranking on all cylinders in order to apply the necessary pressure to the U.S. Senate.