Lame-duck agenda features political votes

[December 01, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats, on borrowed time as the majority party in Congress after a shellacking at the polls, are using their last weeks in power to stroke important voting blocs: Hispanics, gay-rights groups and liberal activists.

It's unlikely they'll muster enough support to pass bills granting legal status to young illegal immigrants who join the military or attend college, or lift a ban on openly gay soldiers. Republicans have been gathering signatures on a letter pledging to block virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress.

But trying sends a message to the core voters Democrats need in 2012 to recapture the majority. Call it lame-duck politics.

Back in town for a postelection session to complete a must-pass federal budget, extend income tax cuts now set to expire in January and perhaps approve a nuclear arms treaty, Democrats are also determined to use their time to fulfill political promises while they still rule the House and have a stronger Senate majority than they will next year.

Take the so-called Dream Act, a measure to give young people whose parents brought them into the United States illegally before they were 16 a path to legal status by going to college or joining the armed forces.

The measure has enjoyed some degree of bipartisan support in the past, and Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, vowed last month -- in the thick of his tough re-election fight in heavily Hispanic Nevada -- to hold a vote on it when Congress returned to finish its end-of-the-year business. He said Tuesday he'd move to overcome GOP objections and force a test vote, although it's unclear when one will occur.

Hispanic voters also played a major role in sparing other Democrats -- including Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Barbara Boxer of California -- from being toppled by a GOP wave.

"There was a firewall in the West where Latino voters turned out in big numbers to reward people who championed them," said Frank Sharry of America's Voice, an immigrant advocacy group. "We're going to try to make it painful" for those who oppose efforts to give illegal immigrants a path to legal status, he added.

Most Republicans vehemently oppose the Dream Act, saying it amounts to amnesty.

Hispanic groups have pushed hard for the legislation, which targets the most sympathetic of the millions of undocumented people -- those brought to the United States as children, who in many cases consider themselves American, speak English and have no ties to or family living in their native countries.

Miffed that President Barack Obama has not done more to press for a broad immigration overhaul to give undocumented people a path to legal status, the groups say the least Democrats can do is push through the more limited bill for young people.

Republicans decry the strategy of acting on such issues during the lame-duck session, accusing Democrats of playing politics and ignoring the message voters sent Nov. 2.

"It's unclear how long our friends across the aisle will continue to resist the message of the election and cling to the liberal wish list," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader, said before he joined the senior members of both parties for a White House meeting with Obama. "With just a few weeks left before the end of the year, they're still clinging to the wrong priorities."

But Democrats also face pressure from their left flank.

Gay-rights groups have criticized Reid for not pushing hard enough to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy against openly gay soldiers, as the House has already voted to do.

Reid has promised to hold a Senate vote on the matter before year's end, after hearings can be held later this week on a Pentagon report on the impact that openly serving gays would have on the military.

Republicans say they need to examine the report, which was issued Tuesday, before acting. It concluded that getting rid of the policy might cause some disruption at first but wouldn't create widespread or long-lasting problems.

Obama seized on the conclusion to call on the Senate to act "as soon as possible" to repeal the ban, "so I can sign this repeal into law this year and ensure that Americans who are willing to risk their lives for their country are treated fairly and equally."

The GOP has little interest in helping Democrats meet that goal.

"In bringing up so many different issues in this lame-duck session, the Democrat leadership of the Senate is insisting on an encore for a concert that drew a lot of boos," said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican. "We believe that instead, what we should be doing in this session -- and the message was clear from the American people -- is keep tax rates where they are, freeze spending, fund the government, go home."

[Associated Press; By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS]

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