Sparring in Spanish

McCain's ad blames "Obama and his Congressional allies" for the failure of the bill, but the truth is that it was a Republican-led filibuster that stymied it in the Senate and forced Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to pull the bill from consideration. On the final cloture vote on June 7, 2007, not a single Republican supported cutting off debate and allowing a vote on the bill. (McCain was absent, but his vote would not have changed the outcome.)

McCain himself credited Republican opposition for the bill's demise. "I just think the opposition to it was very strong," he told Congressional Quarterly Weekly in July of 2007. "A lot of the Republican base was passionate about the issue, and they made their influence felt."

Lately, as he courts Spanish-speaking voters, McCain has attempted to shift blame to Obama by accusing him of supporting partisan "poison pill" amendments that scuttled a fragile compromise between bipartisan groups. The McCain campaign lists amendments that Obama supported and one that he sponsored. But earlier, while still contending for Repubican primary votes to secure the party's nomination, McCain said that he would not vote for his own immigration legislation if it came up again. At the Jan. 30 Republican candidate debate at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California, he said:

Q: At this point, if your original proposal came to a vote on the Senate floor, would you vote for it?

McCain: No, I would not, because we know what the situation is today. So to say that that would come to the floor of the Senate, it won't.

So in Spanish or any other language, both these ads are spinning voters.

Reprinted with permission from .

Sources
Kurtz, Howard. "Limbaugh on McCain: It's Better to Be Right All the Time." The Washington Post. 5 Feb. 2008.

Pfeiffer, Eric. "Once Opposed, Conservative Talk Radio Now Backs McCain." Congressional Quarterly Today. 4 Sep. 2008.

Limbaugh, Rush. "Obama is Stoking Racial Antagonism." The Wall Street Journal. 19 Sep. 2008.

Sandler, Michael. "Immigration Overhaul Stymied." CQ Weekly. 9 Jul. 2007.

The New York Times. "Transcript: Republican Debate in Simi Valley, California." 30 Jan. 2008.

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