http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00717.html

Has Bush Given Up on Immigration?

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; 1:20 PM

The much-anticipated immigration compromise cobbled together last week by the White House and a bipartisan group of senators isn't going anywhere without a lot of aggressive campaigning by the president.

But where is President Bush? Not exactly out on the hustings.

"Supporters had expected opposition from both ends of the political spectrum. But they conceded they were taken aback by the furious response over the weekend, especially from conservatives, who declared that the legislation is nothing short of amnesty for lawbreakers."

Carolyn Lochhead writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "The powerful interest groups whose backing is critical to an overhaul of U.S. immigration policy are fracturing over the new bipartisan 'grand bargain' in the Senate, setting up a brawl over changes that could tear the fragile deal apart...

"Add to that the withering fire from conservatives, a tepid welcome from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's faint praise of the bill as a 'starting point,' and what has been billed as a 'grand bargain' on immigration appears to be unraveling before the debate even begins."

Robert Pear and Michael Luo write in the New York Times: "From the moment debate started, the crosscurrents buffeting the bill were evident. The intense lobbying since the bill emerged last week from three months of bipartisan negotiations is likely to be just a sample of what lawmakers will hear as they return home to their districts for the Memorial Day recess."