Crew, I liked your most recent post. Good analysis, but I just disagree on a few minor points.
I doubt that the amendment proposed by King was an innocent case of CYA. I'd say that they are the ones that saw a political opportunity first. But even if not, why would they fail to predict what the Democrats would do? No, I think they knew exactly how the Democrats would respond. The Republican amendment made it a lose/lose situation for the Democrats. The bill would either be tainted or derailed entirely. A majority of Democrats would have to vote to "allow 9/11 money for illegal immigrants" to get rid of the amendment, or allow it to turn the whole bill into an illegal immigrant issue. I'm sure they could hear the TV commercials playing too...