You may have noticed that I post blog items infrequently. Although I do file online stories from Washington regularly for the News in Brief section of our Web site, I tend not to keep up with my blog.

I will try to remedy this situation. But I’m glad that I haven’t posted anything new about immigration until now. If I had, my analysis would have been wrong.

When it became clear that the Senate bill was going to be revived on Tuesday, I would have written about how powerful a position the presidency is—no matter who occupies the White House. I would have marveled at the fact that President Bush, with approval ratings in the 30s, got his way on Iraq funding in May and was influencing the Senate on immigration in June.

What the president wants, he (or one day, she) gets if he fights hard enough and skillfully enough for it. Never mind.

Bush’s weakness was demonstrated in bold relief on Thursday when a vote to end debate on the immigration bill failed 53-46. Here’s how you read that number: 46 senators supported the president’s position that the compromise immigration bill should move on to a final vote. The number had to reach 60 to end the filibuster.

Although some “ayes” turned to “nays” at the end, when the vote was clearly lost, managing to get only 46 votes on cloture is a blowout loss for the president. This comes despite a lot of hard work on the Hill by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

The depth of the defeat can be measured by the fact that those voting against cloture were predominantly Republican, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. When the top-ranking Republican on Capitol Hill abandons you in a crucial vote on the centerpiece of your remaining domestic agenda, you know you have grave problems.

But the Democrats are not going to emerge unscathed from the immigration bill’s demise. Senate Majority Leader Harry, D-Nevada, lost 12 Democrats to the “nay” side on cloture. They were a diverse group—liberals and conservatives, freshmen and veterans.

What’s likely to happen is that over time, after passions cool, the American public will blame both Republicans and Democrats for the failure of immigration reform.

Americans might also come to realize that Congress—and especially the Senate—is designed to deal with major issues at a measured pace.