A costly alliance with Kennedy

Washington Times:

An immigration alliance with Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts is damaging Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham among conservative Republicans.
The damage to the two Republican senators caused by their support for Mr. Kennedy's immigration bill -- which was blocked by a Senate filibuster last night -- is especially clear in Mr. Graham's home state, scene of an early presidential primary next year.
"I'm very wary of a Republican who is talking to Ted Kennedy," Rick Beltram, Republican Party chairman for Spartanburg County, S.C., told The Washington Times yesterday, after it was reported that Mr. Graham and Mr. McCain had first checked with Mr. Kennedy before deciding to vote with the Massachusetts Democrat on an amendment to the Senate bill.
The Kennedy-McCain alliance was criticized by one of Mr. McCain's Republican presidential rivals, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo.
"John McCain has always prided himself as a man who marches to the beat of a different drummer," Mr. Tancredo told The Times yesterday. "How depressing to learn that the drummer is Ted Kennedy."
A South Carolina Republican who resigned Wednesday from the McCain campaign said he had reached a "parting of ways with McCain and Lindsey Graham" over the immigration issue.
"I hear from a lot of people, and I have yet to get one positive opinion on this immigration bill," David Nix, who served as chairman for Mr. McCain's campaign in Aiken County, S.C., told The Times yesterday.
"I feel McCain and Graham are out of touch with the people of South Carolina," Mr. Nix said. "They are listening to the illegal aliens and not the citizens. We have lot of illegal aliens in this state."
South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson said the immigration issue has inflamed Republican voters in his state.
"I have been chairman for five years and have never seen anything that has connected with the base like this amnesty fight," Mr. Dawson said. "I can't go down the street, walk into a restaurant or fill my gas tank without people walking up to me and saying, 'What are you all going to do about immigration?'"
The South Carolina fallout over the immigration measure -- denounced by conservatives as "amnesty" -- has split the state's two Republican senators. The conference Wednesday between Mr. Graham, Mr. McCain and Mr. Kennedy involved the two Republicans seeking the Massachusetts Democrat's guidance on how to vote on an amendment offered by South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint.
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The sad state of teh Democrat caucus is such that Kennedy was the only one with enough credibility to compromise on an issue. Do you think Chuck Schumer is someone who can reach a deal with a Republican or would if he could. He is a "dagger to the heart" kind of politician who wants to destroy the Republican party more than he wants to do what is right for America. his colleagues like Durbin are very similar. But the fact is that the grand bargain was seen as no bargain by most Republicans. If McCain and Graham had listened to what John Cornyn was saying about the problems with the bill rather than shouting him down they may have had a better chance.