Byron York has a great piece this morning in the Washington Examiner. Apparently (in Byron’s words), Democrats in the Senate are dropping a “difficult-to-pass” climate bill for an “impossible-to-pass” immigration reform bill.  This switch came as a surprise to Senator Graham, who had been working with Democrats to craft a climate bill that could actually move forward in the Senate.

Graham’s reaction…

“I am very disappointed with this turn of events and believe the decision flies in the face of commitments made weeks ago to Senators Kerry, Lieberman and me,” Graham wrote in his open letter Saturday. “I deeply regret that election year politics will impede, if not derail, our efforts to make our nation energy independent.”

“Moving forward on immigration — in this hurried, panicked manner — is nothing more than a cynical political ploy,” Graham continued. “Let’s be clear, a phony, political effort on immigration today accomplishes nothing but making it exponentially more difficult to address in a serious, comprehensive manner in the future.”

Could some Democrats benefit politically by considering an Amnesty bill even if it fails in Congress?  Some Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) seem to think so.  Harry Reid continues to struggle in his reelection bid, and 26% of the Nevada population is Hispanic. But immigration reform failed in 2006 because (like ObamaCare) it was (and remains) extremely unpopular with the American people.  The issue split both political parties and Congress could not pass the bill.

Byron concludes…

Nevertheless, it appears the Democrats’ “cynical political ploy” will go forward. For Reid and his party, it’s a high-risk base-strategy gamble. Maybe it will work. But if it doesn’t, it could mean a Republican victory in November that’s even larger than GOP optimists predict.

Read the entire article here.

More on Lindsey Graham’s reaction here.

Ben Smith posts a video (below) of President Obama trying to rally the African-American, Latino, and women voters who voted for the first time in 2008.  The video was released this morning.  The Democrat strategy for 2010 is becoming clear I think.  Read Ben’s commentary on the video here.