Dear Friends,

So close.

You and I almost put an end to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's jihad against the Salvation Army's requirement that its employees must speak English on the job.

The Stearns-Blackburn amendment to the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriation (H.R. 3093) failed by a vote of 202 to 212. (Democrats 22 ayes to 205 nays. Republicans 180 ayes to 7 nays. Seven Democrats and 16 Republicans did not vote.)

Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (Ohio 10) voted against the Salvation Army. Republican Presidential candidates Duncan Hunter (California 52) and Ron Paul (Texas 14) did not vote.

The seven Republicans who voted for the EEOC and against the Salvation Army were:

Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Florida 21) Mario Diaz-Balart (Florida 25) Dave Reichert (Washington State 8) Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Florida 18) Steve Pearce (New Mexico 2) Chris Smith (New Jersey 4) Heather Wilson (New Mexico 1).

The 22 Democrats who voted for the Salvation Army and against the EEOC were:

Jason Altmire (Pennsylvania 4) John Barrow (Georgia 12) Dan Boren (Oklahoma 2) Christopher Carney (Pennsylvania 10) Robert Cramer (Alabama 5) Lincoln Davis (Tennessee 4) Joe Donnelly (Indiana 2) Brad Ellsworth (Indiana 8) Kristen Gillibrand (New York 20) Bart Gordon (Tennessee 6) Baron Hill (Indiana 9) Steve Kagen (Wisconsin 8) Paul Kanjorski (Pennsylvania 11) Jim Marshall (Georgia 8) Jim Matheson (Utah 2) Mike McIntyre (North Carolina 7) Charlie Melancon (Louisiana 3) Mike Ross (Arkansas 4) Heath Shuler (North Carolina 11) Zack Space (Ohio 18) John Tanner (Tennessee 8) Gene Taylor (Mississippi 4).

Warning: Amnesty will be back in September and Congress will not adjourn on October 26th.

The politics of the 2008 presidential race require that the Democratic-controlled Congress remain in session until the end of December.

The Democrats have technical control of the Senate with 51 votes. One of their 51 Senators is still recovering from a bad illness and four others (Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Obama) may be absent at any time because they are running for president.

The Democrats margin in the House is 233 -202, but 60 of those Democrats represent districts carried by President Bush in 2004. In other words, Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not be asked to campaign for most of these Democrats in 2008.

These numbers have driven Congressional Democrats to understand that they have four essential jobs to do between now and the 2008 New Hampshire primary. They can do none of these jobs once they adjourn for the remainder of 2007:

(1) Investigate the Bush Administration early and often.

The many investigations taking place these days are not all meaningless but neither are they all meritorious. Investigations of how America got into the Iraq war are no different from investigations which took place regarding other wars. These Iraq investigations do lay more groundwork for a withdrawal from Iraq.

(2) Unite Democrats and play to their grass roots by holding lots of antiwar votes.

The Iraq War outrages the Democrat's grass roots in the same way amnesty outraged Republican grass roots. When antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan is screaming at House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Michigan), as she did this week, Democratic unity decreases.

The House seems to hold at least one anti-Iraq War vote every week. This is not an accident, but it is a gamble. A great deal can change in Iraq (and in the Middle East) in twelve months.

Hillary Clinton voted for the war and now she is leading an effort to force an immediate withdrawal. This "I was for the war before I was against it" stance, coupled with her 48% approval rating suggests to me that she will not be the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nominee.

For lots of reasons, the nomination is Al Gore's for the taking (antiwar, global warming leader, victim of a "stolen election"). I'm already seeing Gore 2008 bumper stickers.

(3) Fill the remaining floor time with things which divide Republican, like immigration.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the following exchange took place on the Senate floor:

Mrs. FEINSTEIN. If I may, through the Chair to the majority leader, my interest was piqued in what the majority leader had to say. My question is, Would the majority leader be prepared to give Senator Boxer, Senator Craig, Senator Hutchison, and me a commitment that perhaps the majority leader and the minority leader could sit down and agree to allow a vote on AgJOBS as part of the farm bill without amendments, or some version of AgJOBS? Mr. REID. Madam President, I say to my friend, I am happy to make that commitment. I will do everything I can to make sure it is part of the farm bill.

How you bring legality to that workforce that is here and is illegal remains the question on which we differ. I think we have come awfully close to agreeing on a new guest worker program. ... Somehow we have to be able to fix that and require compliance and not be accused or meet the test of not producing indentured servitude by saying the only way you can become legal is to stay in agriculture. That is not very fair either. So I guess they all have to go home. Some would like that, too. ... If you touch an illegal in any way, and in any way give them something that offers them some stability in the current environment, tomorrow morning Lou Dobbs will say: Amnesty. And it is a new creation he thought of overnight while in one of his 1932 labor dreams. I yield the floor.

(4) Spend every dollar possible now to weaken the effort to extend the Bush tax cuts in 2010.

The budget fights of 2007 are designed to make the White House a more valuable prize in 2008.

Remember the debate in the 2000 election over how the Clinton-era projected "surplus" revenues should be spent? Bush argued for tax cuts. Gore opposed them. Thanks to some hanging Florida chads, Bush and tax cuts won. The American people, not the Congress, would get to spend one trillion dollars.

The folks at Brookings ran the numbers in 2004:

Between January 2001 and August 2003, the projected budget surplus for 2010 declined by $941 billion, of which 43 percent is due to lower revenues and 15 percent is due to increased homeland security and defense spending.

But most of the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. This means that the battle over "it's our money" versus "urgent human needs" will resume with a vengeance in 2009.

Congressional Democrats realize that the trick is not to pile up surplus dollars but to multiply government programs, creating constituencies for more spending. Every dollar of additional spending that Congressional Democrats can lock in between now and November 2008, is dollar someone will fight to keep in 2010.

There are thirteen appropriations bills which must be passed each year. The seven appropriations bills passed by the House of Representatives this year already exceed President Bush's proposals by $20 billion. The Senate's spending record suggests that $20 billion is just a starting point.

The Congress will not have time to pass each individual spending bill, hold House - Senate conferences regarding each one and then pass 13 separate conference reports. What might they do?

Congressional Quarterly reported Wednesday night:

The obvious plan of the Democrats is to not do appropriations bills but put everything together in a giant omnibus appropriations bill in a kind of legislative blackmail with all of the policy and increased spending, to in effect threaten the president to either sign the bill or be accused of shutting down the government," Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the chairman of the Republican Conference, said Wednesday. President Bush has threatened to veto seven appropriations bills because together they would exceed his discretionary spending limit by more than $20 billion. Congressional veterans are certain the two sides are headed for a whopper of a fight over a catchall, omnibus appropriations bill.

Democratic politicians expect the news coverage of a 2007 government shutdown to favor them even more: "Democrats fought to help needy people, but President Bush would rather shut down the government instead of asking his rich friends to pay their fair share of taxes."

Editor's note:

My plan is give you all an August respite from these e-mails so that we might each reacquaint ourselves with family members and the neglected demands of ordinary life. After Labor Day, we will all have renewed energy for the upcoming amnesty battle.

Be proud of what you have already accomplished this year. Take a bow. The amnesty bill was supposed to be a done deal months ago. Instead, Congressmen and Senators are fighting to be seen as standing up for official English and against amnesty.

In fact, Wednesday night, the House voted for an amendment to free Border patrol agents Ramos and Campeon. The amendment by Republicans Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Ted Poe of Texas would bar the use of funds to enforce the judgment or incarcerate agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. You can read the debate for yourself here.

Have a good August. I will write to you only if I must.

Jim Boulet, Jr. Executive Director

e-mail your comments and complaints to: jbouletATenglishfirst.org (replace AT with @)

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