Faux outrage has a certain stink to it. Like the odor of a dead rodent behind a refrigerator, it is easily recognizable to those who have smelled it before. Since last night, I have been getting more than a "whiff" of it. Or maybe it's the familiar odor of the "torch and pitchfork" crowd. In any case, the GOP is pissed; pissed I tell you. On the surface, they are pissed because Obama has defied them. Didn't he get the memo about the so-called mandate that the GOP was handed on election day?
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading these words that there is an air of duplicity about the place. GOoPer pols are accusing the President of over-stepping his Constitutional authority and tar and feathers are being gathered as we speak.
But could there possibly be a hidden agenda at work? Could it be that the President has stolen the GOP's "thunder" on immigration reform by beating them to the punch? Let's face it, if Republicans have learned anything it's that they cannot get elected to national office without capturing a larger share of the "brown-skinned" vote. They have to work twice as hard given the demographic realities of 21st century America. So, maybe the GOoPers were scheming to throw Latinos a bone? But what could the GOP possibly have to offer to the millions of individuals that have entered, or are present in, the U.S. by illicit means, but have put down solid roots and are raising families including American-born children?
Tokenism.
Now Republican legislators have a choice. They can either legislate to block Obama's policies, or they can attempt to pass their own version of "reform." If they pursue the latter, they will surely incur the wrath of their "whitebread" base, you know, the folks that just gave them a Senate majority in hopes of mass deportations.
In a Spike Lee sense, Obama "Did The Right Thing," and maybe just out-foxed FOX.