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The Nation's Pulse

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But not so fast. The Senate passed a similar measure in 2006 -- when both houses of Congress were Republican-controlled -- with 62 votes. (The House passed a much stricter bill, and the two never made it out of the reconciling conference committee as one.) Even last year, a filibuster-proof majority -- 69 and 64 senators -- voted to consider and debate such a bill.

The Senate failed to arrive at a compromise that satisfied enough people, which is hardly surprising, considering the ridiculously small amount of time they had to consider hundreds of pages of controversial legislation without the help of committees. The next Senate will presumably give members more time.

There are lots of policies they can adjust to attract supporters as needed -- if they get confident they can include the DREAM Act, which gives education benefits to illegal-immigrant college students; if they're desperate to reel in a few borderline senators, they can ramp up the enforcement provisions.

The latter, better strategy, coupled with a few more open-borders politicians, might put the legislation over the top.

DESPITE THE DAUNTING task of defeating such a bill in the Senate, it will be the restrictionists' best hope. The House will become more Democratic than it already is, and an open-borders advocate will reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

There is a chance that they will fail. The open-borders folks could push for too liberal a bill, losing senators who want at least a credible attempt at enforcement. Restrictionists could help that happen with poison-pill amendments.

Or maybe President McCain was telling the truth when he vowed that, despite his leadership on and whole-hearted support of the 2007 bill, he'd give in to the American people and make sure enforcement came first in the future.

Ha ha.

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