Disingenuous Dem claims about Defense Bill.

AMNESTY WAS THE KEY ISSUE IN SENATE BLOCKING
DEFENSE BILL FROM DEBATE YESTERDAY
ANOTHER GREAT DEFEAT OF AN AMNESTY EFFORT
Many of the news media tried to simplify the blocking of the bill as being mainly about the Don't Ask, Don't Tell issue.
It almost seems like they don't want to give us a headline of defeating an amnesty which most of them have campaigned so hard for over the last few years.
But I have laid out in my blog today a few reasons why I think the DREAM amnesty issue was the key one behind the Defense defeat.

REPUBLICANS WERE WILLING TO MOVE FORWARD
IF AMNESTY ISSUE DELAYED
Senate Republican Leader McConnell's office explains to us that McConnell offered Senate Majority Leader Reid a deal just before the vote. That deal would have allowed the debate to begin on the Defense bill IF . . .
. . . if the first 20 amendments taken up on the floor were actually related directly to Defense issues
. . . if immigration issues were not part of the first 20 amendments
Did you get that?
The Republicans -- who unanimously voted yesterday to block any debate on the Defense bill -- were willing to allow full debate. If Sen. Reid (D-Nevada) had been willing to put the DREAM amnesty off until after the first 20 amendments, the Senate would be debating the Defense bill right now -- and presumably the next two weeks or so.
The Republicans were willing to go on with debate of the bill even though it included repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and a number of other provisions that many Republicans opposed. They were willing to wait until later in the debate to fight the provisions they opposed.
But the Republicans were not willing to have the DREAM amnesty for up to 2 million illegal aliens be part of the first weeks of debate.
Thus, immigration appears to have been the key issue for the Republican leadership.
REID REFUSED TO DELAY AMNESTY DEBATE
Apparently, immigration was also the key issue for Sen. Reid.
If he had been willing to put off the amnesty issue for awhile, he would have been able to move forward on his Defense bill.
But Reid absolutely objected to Republican McConnell's offer.
Reid wanted to bring up the DREAM Act amnesty on the first day of debate. He apparently wasn't about to wait two weeks and definitely not until after the November elections.
It looks to me that the only reason the Defense bill was blocked was because McConnell insisted on de-prioritizing the amnesty vote and because Reid insisted on the amnesty debate happening immediately.

AMNESTY DOMINATED SENATE LEADERSHIP'S POST-DEFEAT COMMENTS
If you were watching the Defense vote on C-SPAN, you would have noticed that immediately after the Defense bill was declared blocked, Senate leaders launched into emotional speeches about the loss of ability to pass the DREAM amnesty.
The Senate leaders clearly were most distraught that the failure to bring the Defense bill to the floor meant they couldn't try to attach the amnesty to it.
Please join the conversation about the vote and this analysis by clicking here. And also read the rest of my analysis there.
Once again, I want to thank all of you who sent free faxes to your Senators explaining your objections to the DREAM Act amnesty, and who made phone calls, and for those of you who worked even harder by showing up at Senators' offices to register your opinions.
Your constant activism the last two weeks -- and the last two years -- created the conditions that were favorable for us blocking the amnesty this week.
That is not to say that we may not face another attempt at amnesty in the lame duck session after the November elections. But you can have every confidence that we will alert you when you need to be alerted about what you need to do if danger arises again.
And I have every confidence that you will respond in victorious fashion.