The bill passed the Senate anyway, but was rejected by the House of Representatives. Two years later, Senate supporters tried again with a bill that was mostly authored by Kennedy and Jon Kyl, who had opposed the previous bill. McCain and Obama were then formally running for president, but they still managed to participate in the debate. McCain was an original sponsor, and his staff had helped to negotiate and write many of the compromises it contained. His position did not have much support among Republican primary voters, and his rivals for the Republican nomination attacked him constantly for it.

The bill's supporters reconvened their bipartisan caucus and daily meetings. They agreed that should any proposed amendments be unacceptable to either party's members in the group, they would all oppose them. The only dissenter from this agreement was Barack Obama, who not only refused to oppose the amendments that would hurt the bill's chances of passage, but actually sponsored some of them. His actions were not the only cause of the immigration reform's failure to pass the Senate that year, but they certainly contributed to it.

That didn't trouble Latinos in the 2008 general election. They were incensed by Republican opposition to comprehensive reform, and the incendiary language some opponents used to defeat it. Obama received more than twice the number of Hispanic votes McCain received.

Republican opposition to comprehensive reform poses a serious political problem for the GOP in the next election, which will only grow worse in the future as the Hispanic population in the United States continues to increase. I believe a comprehensive bill is in the best interests of Republicans as well as the best interests of the country. It is a practical solution to a difficult problem.

President Obama's speech Monday, like his disingenuous "support" of reform efforts in earlier congresses, is smart politics even though it hurts the cause of reform. But I never said he wasn't a smart politician. Just a very cynical one.