Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 193
The Magnificent Seven
“The more the president talks about his ideas, the more unpopular he becomes. Why would I want to deprive him of that opportunity?”
— Speaker John Boehner, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on reports that Republican might not invite President Obama to deliver his State of the Union address.
First Read notes it’s almost impossible to imagine what GOP-passed legislation might look like. Republicans couldn’t even agree on a political strategy to combat the president’s ‘constitutional overstep’ – the thing that unites them. How will they find common ground on an issue as complex, messy and demographically fraught as immigration reform?”
“There’s a danger here for the GOP if they get too focused on the process and ignore the policy challenge facing them. If they focus too much on tactics, it will quickly frustrate the public which clearly has less patience for gridlock than everyone in Washington realizes. Republicans would be in a very different place on this issue right now and on their criticism of the president’s action if they had ANY bill – even one that might not get presidential support — to show the public. But they don’t have ANY bill… not a singular one that is border security first. Nothing.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]John Boehner has proven himself unable to control his caucus so the onus will be on Mitch McConnell, an extremely skilled legislator, to take the lead for Republicans. [/speech_bubble]
Speaker John Boehner said that President Obama was “damaging the presidency itself” by using his executive authority to prevent the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, the New York Times reports.
Said Boehner: “With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek. And as I told him yesterday, he’s damaging the presidency itself.”
“Mr. Obama, in his address to the nation Thursday night, all but dared congressional Republicans to act — either by passing their own immigration legislation to trump his executive action or by challenging him in a way that could be politically disastrous for the Republican brand… In the lead-up to his announcement and in the hours after, Republicans struggled to balance fighting what they view as an abuse of presidential power while still offering a carefully moderated response that does not damage the party’s standing with Latino voters, the nation’s fastest-growing minority, or imperil its governing agenda next year, when it controls both chambers.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]And with that, the House now heads off on recess until December 1. [/speech_bubble]
George Washington University legal scholar Jonathan Turley “has agreed to represent House Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans in their lawsuit against President Obama,” NBC News reports.
“Turley’s announcement comes after other lawyers ultimately declined to represent the House Republicans — allegedly due to political pressure at their big law firms. Indeed, it’s notable that the House GOP lawsuit against Obama still hasn’t been filed.”
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “is considering expanding a federal lawsuit on President Obama’s executive orders to include immigration. Filing a separate lawsuit over the president’s authority to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation is another option that gained traction Thursday during talks among party leaders,” the Washington Post reports.
“The idea to use the courts as an initial means of dissent, should the president move forward in the coming weeks and save millions from deportation, moved to the front of the House GOP’s playbook after the leadership reviewed it. Boehner is said to want to respond forcefully and quickly should the president act and is of the opinion that a lawsuit would do that, as well as signal to conservatives in his conference that he shares their frustrations about the president’s use of executive power.”
Roll Call: “House Republican leaders who have faced opposition from the most conservative wing of their own caucus in recent years may have stumbled across the best way to quash an intraparty revolt: Win.”
“Last week’s Election Day gains have quieted the talk of a mutiny against John A. Boehner that has obsessed some conservatives since a failed attempt to dethrone the speaker at the start of the 113th Congress. Even tea party members who have long spouted anti-Boehner bombast and candidates who hinted on the trail they would look elsewhere for leadership are sounding pleased with the status quo.”
House Speaker John Boehner “struck a combative tone Thursday in his first postelection comments, vowing the House would again vote to repeal the federal health-care law and warning the White House from ‘poisoning the well’ on immigration,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Emboldened by electoral victories that allowed Republicans to take control of the Senate, Mr. Boehner put the onus on President Barack Obama to work with Republicans now that they will control both the House and Senate in the new year… Mr. Boehner specifically warned Mr. Obama from taking executive action to address problems with the immigration system. Such a move could ruin any chances of lawmakers taking on a broad overhaul of a system the Ohio Republican said is not working.”
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell “have never been best friends,” Roll Call reports.
“But they aren’t enemies, either. Far from it, say staffers and sources who know both lawmakers. The speaker and the Senate’s presumptive new majority leader have built, over the years, a solid professional relationship based on a sturdy sense of mutual respect. That relationship is in the spotlight now more than ever, with Republicans emboldened in the wake of Tuesday’s wave election that saw the GOP pick up at least eight seats in the Senate and more than a dozen in the House.”
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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