Hapless Republicans Prolong Their Self-Destructive Immigration Agony

From left, House Speaker John Boehner, President Obama, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Chuck Schumer at a luncheon at the White House last month. 

Alan: It's a cold day in Hell. 

Sane Republicans must pretend they oppose immigration reform to placate conservative crazies who are more damaging to The GOP than Islamic terrorists wearing suicide vests. 

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Excerpt: “Hardline conservatives who have caused problems for leaders for years were not falling in line” as of Tuesday afternoon, reports Politico. “These conservatives estimate their ranks are 30 to 40, enough to derail a vote.”And it wouldn’t be the first time that House GOP leadership has overestimated support or been unable to round up the votes for its chosen bill. But assuming that Boehner does get something like his plan to pass the House, there’s one much larger problem: The next time the funding bill comes up, Boehner and company won’t have the excuse of a Senate minority anymore, and they don’t seem to have any idea what to do without that dodge."

Republicans prolong their immigration agony

James Downey, December 3, 2014

I am old enough to remember when Barack Obama’s presidency was assumed to be all but over. Three weeks later, he has put his Republican foes in Congress in a tight spot, as they struggle with how to respond to the president’s executive order temporarily legalizing millions of undocumented immigrants. Determined to avoid a government shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner and soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have figured out a temporary solution, but GOP leaders appear to have no answer as to how they will eventually decide between their base’s views on immigration and the rest of the country’s.

For now, as my colleague Dana Milbank writes, Boehner and his allies’ solution is just symbolic: “[T]hey plan to keep the government running through Sept. 30, probably allowing immigration-related spending to lapse earlier next year. This would be paired with a symbolic vote blocking Obama’s executive actions.” More specifically, the first bill would separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from the funding for the rest of the government. (Some have argued that since U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which would carry out most of Obama’s executive order, runs on fees, Republicans can’t really defund it, but the Federalist’s Sean Davis points out that the GOP could include a rider prohibiting CIS from touching those fees.) The second bill’s author, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), admits that the “symbolic vote” will mean nothing in the lame-duck session, since Democrats control the Senate. Indeed, the GOP leadership’s pitch is heavily dependent on the fact that a government funding bill has to be passed now while Democrats still hold one chamber. “I think they understand that it’s going to be difficult to take meaningful action as long as we’ve got Democratic control of the Senate,” Boehner told reporters.

It should be noted that this legislative two-step may not even pass: “Hardline conservatives who have caused problems for leaders for years were not falling in line” as of Tuesday afternoon, reports Politico. “These conservatives estimate their ranks are 30 to 40, enough to derail a vote.”And it wouldn’t be the first time that House GOP leadership has overestimated support or been unable to round up the votes for its chosen bill. But assuming that Boehner does get something like his plan to pass the House, there’s one much larger problem: The next time the funding bill comes up, Boehner and company won’t have the excuse of a Senate minority anymore, and they don’t seem to have any idea what to do without that dodge.

Assuming Republicans split the “immigration-related spending” from the rest of the government (i.e. spending on the Department of Homeland Security), what happens a few months from now, when the DHS’s funding comes up for reauthorization? Do Republicans block the president’s nominees, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and others have suggested, whether or not they have anything to do with Obama’s immigration order? Do they change their mind and decide to shut down the government or the DHS, despite their claims so far to the contrary? Either of those options will almost certainly lead to public backlash and, in the latter case, serious hurt for millions of Americans should the shutdown drag on.

The far right already knows how this shell game is going to play out. Red State’s Erick Erickson says, “[T]hey have no intention of stopping him. In fact, they will enable him and fund his plans.” Hot Air’s Allahpundit writes, “Think Boehner and McConnell are going to pull the plug on DHS in March and risk a White House media campaign along these lines, at a moment when people like [Chris] Christie and [Marco] Rubio are announcing they’re running for president to rebuild America’s national defense? Me neither.” And their champions on Capitol Hill are making similar arguments: Politico reports “Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, David Vitter of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah all began to blast the House GOP leadership’s plan on Tuesday afternoon, arguing that the House needs to block funding for implementation of Obama’s executive action now.”

And GOP leadership appears to know it’s out of moves. National Review’s Joel Gehrke reports that “Senate Republicans had no appetite for discussing how to thwart President Obama’s executive orders on immigration during the conference’s weekly lunch.” When Vitter and Lee tried to bring up fighting Obama, says one of Gehrke’s sources, “it was like [Lee and Vitter] were standing up and speaking in Latin.” The House leadership, as far as any reports indicate, has not given any real sense of a plan either.

Of course, Boehner and company couldn’t be seen as capitulating after the first fight. But the signs suggest Obama has put the GOP leadership in a position where its best choice is to prolong its agony. Not bad for a “lame duck” president.