What a surprise – Lugar puts DREAM on hold; Durbin & Dems will fly solo

DURBIN: Going alone on the DREAM

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., won’t have his usual “partner in crime,” so to speak, when he once again sponsors a version of the DREAM Act this year in Congress.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who in recent years has been Durbin’s primary co-sponsor for the measure meant to benefit those young people who aren’t U.S. citizens but have lived the bulk of their lives in this country, said this week he’s not touching the issue this year.



LUGAR: Will he return in '13?



HE ACCUSED PRESIDENT Barack Obama of politicizing the issue of immigration reform with his comments this week in El Paso, Texas; even though all Obama really did was called out conservative ideologues for their own politicizing of the issue in recent years.

Not that any bill for DREAM was going to go anywhere this year – the ideological majority of the House of Representatives stood in its way. And political operatives in Indiana are preparing their own campaign against Lugar – planning to use his sympathetic views toward immigration reform as their primary political “ammunition” against him.

Which means the senator seeking his seventh term in Washington wasn’t going to actively tout this issue under any circumstances. Durbin will have this issue all to himself for 2011 -- that is, if it doesn't get squashed beyond recognition in the House of Representatives.

Those people interested in this latest political gamesmanship should check out this site’s sister weblog, The South Chicagoan, for more details.

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