Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has a pretty tight friendship with his fellow senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), and as the two continue to work together on getting a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed, they're only getting tighter. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Schumer reiterated his previous criticisms of House Republicans who oppose the Senate's comprehensive bill and wondered why there weren't more conservatives like his friend McCain in the lower chamber of Congress. But he also sounded typically optimistic on the prospects of a big bill overhauling the nation's immigration system despite the resolve of the House's Republican majority to continue working on small, conservative immigration legislation.
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Asked why the Senate was able to fashion a bipartisan immigration reform bill in a relatively short amount of time, the New York senator responded, "I think because there are fewer extreme people in the Senate and the desire to compromise and work together is stronger. Look, if you didn't have that redistricting that the House has, I think the House would be much more similar."
He added, when asked if the House's most conservative members had "basically driven John McCain into your arms":
"Well, the problem is, why aren't there more John McCains? It's not a mystery why there's a John McCain. The question is, why hasn't even a stronger group in the House created some John McCains?"
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But in spite of his sharp words for his opponents among House Republicans - McCain has joined that chorus, too, calling them "wacko birds" -- Schumer said that he was "pleasantly surprised over the last few weeks" with the direction of immigration reform in the House, indicating that he thought there were "many in the House, leadership and otherwise, who really want to pass a bill", even if that bill didn't resemble the Senate's own bill. In supporting his point, he made indirect reference to a bill drafted by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor which would give legal status and a path to citizenship to many young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children by their parents.
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"I don't want to name specific names here on the record," he said, "but the fact that people are entertaining a DREAM Act the fact that people are entertaining different aspects of the pathway to citizenship; and I think they're also learning that the Senate bill is not what the right-wing radio commentators are saying, that it's really tough on border security, and that it is far from amnesty. Because the way to sort of get right with the law is not very easy for anybody."
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