by Frank James
President Bush was in the Newport, Rhode Island, delivering a speech on staying the new course in Iraq when the Senate failed to amass the needed 60 votes to keep the immigration bill alive.
Following the Iraq speech, an obviously glum Bush spoke briefly to reporters about the immigration vote:
PRESIDENT BUSH: I thank the members of the Senate and members of my administration who worked so hard on the border security and immigration reform bill. I’m sorry the Senate was unable to reach agreement on the bill this morning.
Legal immigration is one of the top concerns of the American people, and Congress’s failure to act on it is a disappointment. The American people understand the status quo is unacceptable when it comes to our immigration laws. A lot of us worked hard to see if we couldn’t find common ground. It — it didn’t work.
Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues. The Congress needs to work on comprehensive energy policy and health care, making sure health care is affordable without inviting the federal government to run the health care system. We got to work together to make sure we can balance this federal budget and not overspend or raise taxes on the American people. And we got a lot of work to do.
When they come back from the summer — from the July recess, before the summer break begins, we’ll be focusing on the appropriations process. And I look forward to working with Congress to balance our budgets and to be wise about how we spend the people’s money.
Thank you for your time.
Q Are you sorry you didn’t do more personally to lobby the members of your own party, sir?
(No audible response as Bush turned and walked out the building.)