Reply #5: Good economy, bad economy - most repubs oppose immigration reform.

[pampango]

They filibustered it in the Senate in 2007. President Obama must really care about this deeply to give the repubs a potential issue for 2010. Or maybe he has a political strategy of giving the repubs enough rope to hang themselves. They won the "battle" over immigration reform in 2007, but may have made themselves look so narrow-minded that they lost the "war" in 2008.

The three repubs quoted in the article, Sessions, Martinez and King, all can't seem to wait to yell "amnesty bill", since that's how they think they won the "battle" last time. Of the Democrats quoted, Obama, Gibbs, and Axelrod all say the President is going forward with the discussion (though not necessarily legislation) and Schumer will hold hearings and is optimistic that legislation will pass this year.

At least organized labor is unified in support of legalization and in opposition to a guest worker program this time around. Perhaps that is what makes Obama and Schumer more optimistic about the prospects for immigration reform this time. Larger Democratic majorities in the House and Senate help, too.