p.m., Roy Beck send out an upbeat e-mail to NumbersUSA members. :
What an incredible job tens of thousands of you did today! Thanks.
The feedback we are getting from you about your phone calls and the intelligence your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team is picking up suggests that Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) is not nearly as solid in passing the Bush/Kennedy amnesty tonight as he was last night.
A couple of the Republicans who we thought were likely YES votes on amnesty are telling constituents they are definite NO votes.
And we’re starting to see signs that a couple of last week’s Democratic YES votes are turning to NO.
Sen. Lott and Pres. Bush still have plenty of undecided Republicans who were NO last week from which to persuade to vote YES next week. But we do have a real chance to win this if the voters in each of these states keep up the pressure.
Later this weekend, I will give you a much more detailed look at which Senators are in which list. We have so much more work to do.
But I wanted you to enter the weekend feeling good about our slightly improved prospects and the fact that jointly you have had such an effect today and this last month.
The one way that I hope you will stay on the job this weekend is if you have any chance at all of being in a meeting or other public event where you would have a chance to ask or shout a question or make a statement to one of your Senators who might vote YES on the amnesty. I cannot tell you how influential that would be.
And please, please let us know if you are planning any kind of “visitation” to one of the local Senate offices next week so we can promote the visit to others in your area.
The following are the Senators whom we are feeling quite good about. You should find ways to thank them for being so sensitive to the needs of your state’s workers and communities and urge them to just fight harder to stop S. 1348.
(* in front of Senators up for re-election in 2008.)
The KILL BILL Caucus
DEMOCRATS (8)
* Baucus (MT)
Byrd (WV)
Dorgan (ND)
* Landrieu (LA)
McCaskill (MO)
Tester (MT)
* Pryor (AR)
* Rockefeller (WV)
REPUBLICANS (19)
* Alexander (TN)
* Allard (CO)
Bond (MO)
Bunning (KY)
Coburn (OK)
Corker (TN)
* Cornyn (TX)
Crapo (ID)
DeMint (SC)
* Dole (NC)
* Enzi (WY)
Grassley (IA)
* Inhofe (OK)
* Roberts (KS)
* Sessions (AL)
Shelby (AL)
* Smith, G. (OR)
Thune (SD)
Vitter (LA)
A special hero’s garland should drape four Senators who have been absolutely courageous leaders in battling the power of the White House and of the Democratic Party Leadership—and taking incredible abuse from most of the elite national news media.
THE HEROIC LEADERS
Sessions (R-Ala.)
Dorgan (D-N.D.)
DeMint (R-S.C.)
Vitter (R-La.)
If all 98 Senators vote, we will need 39 NO votes on cloture to kill this bill.
Congratulations to all of you in the states of these 27 Senators. But we have to get 12 more for sure. Right now, I see 13 others who look like really good possibilities if their constituents can just give them the right message in sufficient quantity. And there are another half-dozen or so who are not out of the question.
Enjoy your evening. Thanks for being such great citizens this week.