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Why GOP Leaders Want to Delay Confrontation

December 5, 2014 · 10:05 am ET · 35 Comments

Byron York: “There is one all-important fact that has inexplicably gotten lost in much of the arguing over how Republicans should respond to President Obama’s unilateral edict on immigration: The GOP doesn’t control the Senate yet.”

“Democrats will run the Senate, and Harry Reid will be majority leader, until Jan. 3, 2015. So when Republicans, or conservatives, or anyone else, announce what they think Mitch McConnell and John Boehner should do in the next few weeks, they should remember that right now Republicans have the same strength and numbers they had in October 2013, when they lost the government shutdown fight.”

“And yet there are voices in the conservative world that want Republicans to fight to defund Obama’s executive action now, rather than wait until January. And they accuse Boehner, McConnell, and other Republican leaders of caving to the president on immigration even before a fight has begun.”

House of Representatives, Senate government shutdown

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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