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The political class, blogs, and prognosticators are all aflutter over the news that President Obama plans an announcement tomorrow night on his executive action involving immigration reform. While the move doesn’t surprise me – heck, he’s been talking about this for months now – I’m gonna wait and see exactly what the guy says first. A few thoughts, however:
1. Remember that everything that this White House does is for political reasons only. Does anyone believe that if Louisiana senator Mary Landrieu had any kind of a chance in her December run-off with Bill Cassidy that President Obama would wait until after that election? She’s behind in the polls, the DNC has withheld funding, and her pathetic attempt to get her Senate colleagues to pass the Keystone XL pipeline was a fiasco, so the President isn’t going to wait. Hasta la vista, Mary.
2. Republicans would do well to hold their powder until they see the details of the President’s plan. After all, if all it amounts to is simply publicizing that he’s no longer going to enforce current immigration law, that would be hardly jaw-dropping: the administration hasn’t been enforcing the nation’s immigration laws since he took the oath of office. If all that ends up is more of the same, just publicized, to me it’s no big deal.
3. If, however, what the President announces is truly extra-constitutional, the Republicans have every right to go after the administration with everything they have. Table all presidential nominations for the remainder of his term. Slash the discretionary budgets of the White House and government agencies that do the President’s bidding, like the DHS, EPA, and IRS. Push and pass legislation that the President will be forced to veto. Make the Democrats the party of “No” going into 2016. In short, make his life miserable for the remainder of his term.
4. This certainly is going to make the 2016 coronation of Hillary Clinton a little more, shall we say, problematic. How does she respond? If she criticizes the president’s actions she risks alienating progressives and left-wing liberals who already suspect she’s an old windbag Washington pol. If she supports, she’s seen as pandering to Latinos and further alienating centrist Democrats and Independents who left the Democrats in droves during the 2014 midterms.
5. Make no mistake about it: this is about Barack Obama and Barack Obama only. He could care less about the thrashing his party got in the midterms, he needs to show everyone that he still matters. He doesn’t see himself as the lamest of lame ducks, and he’s desperate to be back in the game, having folks twittering over what he will do, goading Republicans and making conservatives apoplectic at his actions, and being in the spotlight. It’s what he lives for. Whether what he announces is substantial or not, he’s doing it to show everyone that he is still the President and he’s not going away anytime soon.
So excuse me if I’m not that riled up about this just yet.
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