IMMIGRATION BILL HAPPENINGS. As various folks are lamenting, a fair number of objectionable amendments worked their way into the immigration bill yesterday. But last night, after the papers went to bed, the good guys won one too: Byron Dorgan's amendment to sunset the guest worker program after five years, which had earlier gone down on a 48-49 vote, passed, on a 49-48 vote. The flips, which mainly came on the right, were weird: Jim Bunning went from no to yes, Tom Coburn went from yes to no, Jim DeMint went from no to yes, Chris Dodd went from abstention to support, Elizabeth Dole went from no to yes, Mike Enzi went from no to yes, etc. This is rather important, as one of the question with the bill is whether a better -- or possibly shorter -- guest worker program crafted in conference with the House can survive the final vote. This is evidence that, particularly on the Republican side, it can. --Ezra Klein
