A snobbish European once surprised me by conceding that the Americans have made a great capital out of George Washington's swamp, and in the spring sunlight of late May, it looks glorious. But Washington D.C. is also, to a surprising extent, a little town, a city-state like Athens or Venice, where people meet on the street or bump into each other in restaurants, all the while mutually preoccupied with the affairs of what is, in fact, the greatest empire in the history of the world. "Inside the Beltway" is a world of its own—an intoxicating world, essentially unaware of the extraordinary demographic catastrophe being brought about by its own laws, which indeed it is trying to exacerbate.

I was in Washington to check on the progress of the Senate Sellout. Short answer: it's in trouble. At the end of last week, D.C.'s little band of immigration reform patriots in Washington (we all know each other) was almost euphoric. The White House/Senate Democrat juggernaut, seemingly unstoppable only a week earlier, was bogging down badly. Eagerly, they traded reports of private Capitol Hill meetings where Administration spokestraitors had met hostile receptions. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was said to have responded with particular bad temper. No serious defeats have been inflicted on the legislation yet. But the original plan, to force it through before the Memorial Day recess, has had to be abandoned. There will be another week's debate when Congress comes back into session on June 4.

This will be critical. Americans as a whole may think that Washington just imposes its will on them. And with reason. But in Washington, they all genuinely see themselves as victims, clinging to the flotsam and jetsam of elected and appointive office, at the mercy of huge waves of public opinion appearing without warning from Out There.

Supporters of the Senate Sellout are apparently shocked at the ferocity of America's reaction to their plot. But so, much to my surprise, are the D.C. immigration patriots. Which just goes to show how deceptive the Beltway environment can be.

This is why the immigration enthusiasts manufacture their "pollaganda" with such determined shamelessness. (Steve Sailer will be refuting their latest Kool-Aid on Monday night). And it's why this sort of story is so important:

Sylvia Warner, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, said the lawmaker's office has been receiving lots of telephone calls, faxes and e-mails about the immigration reform proposal. Warner said 100 percent of the calls, faxes and e-mails oppose the legislation. [VDARE.COM emphasis] "They see it as amnesty," Warner said.

Immigration proposals hit a nerve, By Jim Totten, DAILY PRESS & ARGUS (Livingston, MI), Sunday, May 27, 2007.

Back outside the Beltway, I feel a longer perspective creeping over me once again. As I said last year, the passage of the Bush-Kennedy Amnesty/ Immigration Surge will be the beginning, not the end, of America's immigration Calvary.

But right now, it can be avoided. Everything hangs on what Americans say to their elected officials when they ambush them outside the Beltway this week—and how loudly they say it.