"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is moving full steam ahead with a politically tenuous strategy to pass comprehensive immigration reform this summer -- with or without Republicans -- in an effort to inspire Latino voters ahead of the midterm elections," Roll Call writes. "Reid caught many colleagues and activists off guard with his forceful stance on the need for reform this year during a speech at an immigration rally last weekend in his home state, where Hispanic voters will play a crucial role in his sagging re-election campaign." Reid said on Saturday, “We are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform. We need to do this this year. We can’t let excuses like a Supreme Court nomination get in the way.”

“The Senate on Monday agreed to consider a temporary extension of unemployment benefits after four Republicans joined Democrats in voting to debate the proposal, which has become the focus of an intensifying fight over deficit spending,” the New York Times says.

The AP looks at the hypocrisy of spending rhetoric versus earmarks. It goes to Huntsville, Ala., for a speech by Sen. Richard Shelby, who says to a crowd in the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, "We're spending a lot of money that we don't have." AP points out: "Lost in the moment is this irony: Shelby's anti-spending message is being delivered in a government-built museum to which he frequently steers public money. The admiring crowd is made up of people whose livelihood depends on federal aerospace programs that drive the local economy. And the main point of Shelby's speech is to assure them he's fighting to stop NASA budget cuts and keep the spigot in Washington flowing. The scene helps explain why Washington can't control its spending. Lawmakers and their voters usually love the federal money that flows into their communities, even though they're wary of spending in the abstract and balk at tax increases."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archi...3/2266239.aspx


So, Immigration battle starts in the Summer time. Let's hope they debate and vote on it! They need to pass it!