Congressional Republicans
continue to rail against President Obama's plan to take action on immigration. Because, as Speaker John Boehner likes to say, it would "poison the well" of cooperation between Republicans and the president, a well that ... has been sweetened and cleaned by years of Republicans refusing to work with the president? The GOP is like a big damn Brita filter and it's just too bad Obama wants to poison that water by doing anything they don't want. But Republicans have their principles, and one of those principles is hating immigrants and opposing any and all action to protect people from deportation. And we have to respect that consistent opposi—ha ha ha, I'm sorry, I was going to make noises about consistent Republican opposition to this type of action, but:
Two of the last three Republican presidents — Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — did the same thing in extending amnesty to family members who were not covered by the last major overhaul of immigration law in 1986.
There was no political explosion then comparable to the one Republicans are threatening now.
Gee. It's almost like this might just be routine political opposition to President Obama. Like it might even be part of the plan: Republicans went into the elections with
plans to force a government shutdown by passing spending bills they knew for certain the president could not and would not sign. Now they moan and sigh about how they'd love to work with Obama if only he hadn't poisoned the well and forced them to ... pass spending bills they know for certain he won't sign, leading to a shutdown. In their version, that shutdown will be Obama's fault, because he didn't sign their bill eviscerating key functions of government. But it's been the plan all along.