Three quarters of those who answered this week’s Quick Poll! question — Is the defeat of the immigration bill good news or bad news? — welcomed the rout in the Senate. The percentages? — 76% good news, 24% bad news.
Throughout weeks of debate, there was a strong undertow of opinion insisting that no legislation was better than bad legislation — the implication was that this was a very bad bill — and presented this view as a challenge to that attributed to a legacy-conscious President Bush, that any immigration reform reaching his desk deserved his signature.
The groundswell against what was regarded as veiled amnesty for illegal immigrants prompted congressional talk of reviving mandatory “fairness” in broadcasting, which some people say is a euphemism for government meddling.