Is This The Important Cloture Vote Or What?

A very interesting post by Carol Platt Liebau http://carolliebau.blogspot.com says that this is not the important vote that was held today on cloture in regard to the "comprehensive immigration reform" bill-scam. The real test will come at the end of the week when amendments will be voted up or down and apparently another cloture vote will take place.
However, Laura Ingraham http://lauraingraham.com, says on her show that this was the vote and whatever happens here on out does not matter. That is why she spent the better part of her show calling senator's office's in Washington to see how they would vote on cloture today.
As you know by now, cloture passed 64-35, thus cutting off debate and moving to vote on the 22 amendments to the bill-scam.
So, who is right? I hate to take a middle ground, but I think they are both right.
If those Republicans who voted to end debate and let votes take place realize that most if not any of their amendments will pass, then they can vote against cloture later this week. Some believe that the strategy is to make the Democrat senate have to vote for or against on seemingly realistic amendments to the bill-scam. It is a very risky strategy. I have given it some thought and think that those who want real changes before they consider voting for the bill-scam are hoping that there will be reason and some, maybe when hell freezes over, if not all the amendments will pass. The problem is, they will be offset by the Democrat amendments. That is why it is a risky strategy Also, many of these GOP senators are up for reelection in 2008 and have already taken immense heat on the war funding vote issue. They can not afford to take another hit for President Bush, who is not up for election next year.
To digress, I know it is crass to tie this vote to future votes on funding the wars, but it is a political reality. Some senators may tell the president that they can not alienate the overwhelming majority of Americans, voters in their state, and their base, on this bill-scam and continued war funding. They may say to President Bush, it is either this or the war. I hope it does not come to that, but I would not be surprised.
Now, on to the point that voting to end cloture means the bill will eventually be voted up or down. Those who say that have a point. The way to end any further discussion on this bill-scam was simple-vote against cloture. Thus, senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) would have been forced to either let debate continue or pull the bill-scam altogether. But, today he dodged that bullet. Too many Republicans caved and voted for cloture. Having any more debate may embolden the pro-bill-scam forces and they can pick off senate opponents one by one as the talk drags on.
So, are those of us opposed to the "comprehensive immigration reform" bill-scam finished yet? I do not think so. As I noted on the earlier post, DO NOT GIVE UP! Keep calling the senators and flood their lines. SO WHAT IF THEY DO NOT LIKE IT?! A good resource to get the phone, fax numbers and e-mail addresses is congress.org http://congress.org.
If we do not ramp it up even more now, then the elites will have won. We can still put this abysmal piece of legislation on the ash heap of history. We can see if President Bush is serious about the national security concerns. We can try to make congress not give amnesty, and that is what this is. If we let the elites win this, we the people have no one to blame but ourselves.