Reid presses Bush over GOP votes

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The top Senate Democrat said yesterday that President Bush must prove he can deliver more Republican votes before Democrats will put the immigration bill, which collapsed last week, back on the Senate schedule.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Mr. Bush that the only hope for the bill is if he delivers the votes of more than 20 Republican senators to break a filibuster and pass the measure.

The Nevada Democrat had a frank assessment of the bill's prospects, saying the 51-member Democratic caucus was "about maxed out" at the 38 votes they delivered on a test vote on the bill last week 22 short of breaking a filibuster. They were joined by just seven Republicans one-third of the number Mr. Reid says the president must deliver.

"It's the president's bill," Mr. Reid said, adding that if Democrats are being counted on to supply the additional votes, "it won't happen."

Mr. Bush, who will visit with Senate Republicans in a closed-door meeting today to try to rally support, is optimistic, even to the point of sounding jaunty.

"I believe we can get it done. I'll see you at the bill signing," he told reporters at a press conference in Bulgaria yesterday.

Democrats and White House officials who both say they are working toward getting a bill passed spent the weekend pointing fingers at each other. Mr. Bush, who was traveling in Europe, named Mr. Reid in his weekly radio address, and in TV appearances several administration officials fingered the Democratic leader as the roadblock.

Yesterday, Democrats fired back with a letter saying Mr. Bush has worked with them so far but now needs to show "stronger leadership."

"Simply put, we need many more than seven Republicans to vote for cloture and final passage of this bill," Mr. Reid and the rest of his Senate leadership team wrote.

The letter offers no indication of how Mr. Bush can prove he has earned enough support, and Republican aides said it was a move to try to conceal Mr. Reid's own efforts to sink the chances for a bill.