Conservatives growing uneasy about Kennedy-led negotiations
By Bluey Posted in Featured Stories | Immigration — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Update by Jeff: The report has been confirmed

Sources on Capitol Hill tell me the Senate may be very close to a deal on comprehensive immigration reform.

But as the immigration deal comes together, Senate conservatives are growing uneasy about the state of the negotiations, fearing that Republican leadership will sell out to the Bush Administration and liberal Democrats to give amnesty to illegal aliens.

The issue boils down to whether Senate Republicans leaders, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Conference Chairman Jon Kyl (Ariz.), will give Democrats a free pass to bring up the bill without ever giving Republicans a chance to review it. Sen. Teddy Kennedy (D.-Mass.) is leading negotiations for the Democrats, and has so far negotiated a favorable deal for Democrats, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The Senate on Wednesday will be voting on a motion to proceed to last year’s Senate-passed immigration bill. A motion to proceed is a procedural step to start debating the legislation. It would allow leadership to present a bill to the Senate with no time for senators to actually read the legislation.

“There is concern among conservatives on the Hill that leadership will cave in on the motion to proceed on a bill that they’ve never seen,â€