Just as conservatives were declaring White House support for the controversial amendment, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) stormed to the Senate floor to announce that new White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten had assured him that the president now opposed the measure in the name of preserving bipartisan backing. The plan was promptly defeated, and the delicate pro-reform coalition held. For now.
From WaPo
I’m guessing that when the GOP goes looking for a wedge issue they usually manage to pick one that doesn’t divide their own base to the extent that the immigration debate has. One other thought, at what point can we just start referring to the guest workers as serfs? Now that the GOP is on track with its plan to rewrite the tax code to establish a defacto hereditary monarchy; it was only a matter of time before they started working toward developing a native peasantry.
