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In 2013, the Senate passed a bipartisan -- do you remember that word? -- immigration reform bill that provided a pathway for undocumented immigrants to earn their way to citizenship.

The bill included tough new border security measures along the Mexican border: More fencing and thousands of more border patrol agents.

That negotiated legislation, which passed on a 68-32 count, garnered 14 Republican votes.

People like McCain and Rubio and Graham and Flake and Corker and Hatch and Ayotte.

The pathway would be no easy road; the requirements could have taken 13 years to fulfill.

But Republicans buried the bill in the House where bipartisan legislation generally goes to die.

Now, the Senate too is hopelessly split by partisanship and party, and the White House no longer is open to immigration reform.

In view of today's sharp division and fiery rhetoric, it's startling to recall there was such an opportunity just four years ago.

Lincoln Catholic Bishop James Conley spoke up powerfully about illegal or undocumented immigrants in an op-ed published in the Catholic Southern Nebraska Register this weekend and posted on Facebook.

"Our immigration system is broken because overhauling it would require that political leaders on all sides put aside partisan posturing and incendiary rhetoric in order to reach meaningful and comprehensive agreements," the bishop wrote.

"Surely, our government, in wisdom and creativity and human decency, can find just means of addressing the crime of illegal immigration without severing marriages, sending children to foster care and returning people to situations of abject hopelessness," he wrote.

"Surely, if America is truly great, it can respond to these challenges with ingenuity and virtue and charity," Conley stated.

"I stand in solidarity with immigrant families living in fear of what might be coming for them.

"I stand in solidarity with American citizens looking for real security instead of political showmanship and rhetoric.

"I stand in solidarity with those politicians and law enforcement agents working to find fair and humane solutions to complex problems.

"I stand in solidarity with those living in poverty or danger seeking some promise of safety and opportunity for their children.

"As Catholics," he wrote, "we must continue to call for real, comprehensive, safe and just immigration reform.

"But we cannot accept the panacea of mass detention and deportation," Conley wrote.

Guessing the end game at the Legislature.

Who can tell how this ends?

Tax cuts -- property and/or income -- remain the explosive political issue.

Rural interests appear to be drawing a deep line in the sand this time, calling for an undivided focus on meaningful property tax reduction.

Hanging in the air, whispered in text messages but undeclared, is the possibility -- but not the certainty -- of political consequences if that does not happen.

Legislative seats are in play next year and so is the governorship and rural Nebraska dominates statewide Republican primary elections.

Sen. Ben Sasse's remarks to a Lincoln Chamber of Commerce coffee gathering last week were the latest reminder of how gifted this guy is.

In introducing him, Chamber executive vice president Bruce Bohrer described Sasse as "a walking think tank."

Sasse walked the crowd through a broad sweep of history, centered on the present and cast an eye on the future, all of that delivered seamlessly and with hardly a pause.

The top headlines from JournalStar.com. Delivered at 11 a.m. Monday-Friday.

It was the kind of performance that challenges all of us to up our game.

Police officers did a professional job of keeping a lid on the demonstration that confronted Sen. Deb Fischer in Lincoln last week.

They respected the right of assembly, calmly and patiently talked protesters out of the Grand Manse building after they became disruptive and were blocking the hall, and did so with no threat or show of force.

No confrontation; no escalation; no injuries, no arrests; noisy, but no harm done: that's an A-plus in crowd control.

Jane Kleeb was featured on MSNBC during the election of a new Democratic national chairman in Atlanta on Saturday.

Kleeb, the new chair of Nebraska's Democratic Party, supported Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who lost in a narrow contest with Tom Perez.

"We are in the streets, energized and progressive," Kleeb said, and Ellison would have been the bridge to connect activists with the party apparatus.

Kleeb told MSNBC she is ready to work with Perez.

"Of course," she said. "But it's his responsibility to build a bridge, not mine."

* A view from the west in this paragraph in the North Platte Bulletin about a town hall meeting with Sen. Mike Groene: "It turned out there was no need for law enforcement even though some Groene critics from eastern Nebraska were said to be in the audience."

* Baseball is in the air.

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Don Walton: Immigration reform was within reach - Lincoln Journal Star