The President did what he needed to do tonight and I couldn't be happier for the country, for the millions of good decent people who just want a better life and no longer need live in fear, and more proud that Barrack Obama is our President. I know, maybe you think I gush about him too much but if there wasn't so much ugly, puerile hatred of him-on both the Left and the Right; the Teabaggers and the Firebaggers-I might not have to belabor this so much. He is a very good man and we're very luck he's our President.
I watched his speech on MSNBC and you had Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and others wondering what the GOP reaction would be. It seems that some at least had hoped the GOP reaction would be positive! I find such an idea laughable. I knew they'd react as themselves-just spoilt, bratty bullies who just want their own way always, all the time, without ever allowing logic to intrude in their absurd demands.
Republican Steve Schmidt then came on the show and showed that my pessimism was utterly and completely on target. He was talking so fast and he was sweating and just making not a whit of sense. Chris Hayes pointed out that the GOP only wants to discuss process here-isn't this s clear hint they're losing on the issues? However, Schmidt would have none of it-turns out 'process is important.' He just believes that Obama did something unprecedented here, though, he didn't try to claim it was illegal-and not many Republicans are seriously trying to claim this was illegal. Because Obama did this terrible thing that is actually totally legal the GOP won't pass immigration reform that it wasn't going to pass anyway.
This is why their threats have been so laughable-you know, doing this will be waving a red flag in front of a bull, do this and there will never be immigration reform. The reality is the GOP has no intention of doing immigration reform. Think about it. After 2012, they had decided they had to do it-the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, the RNC all understood this.
Yet they didn't do it. A bipartisan bill passed the Senate but then Boehner just let it collect rust in the House. So after a bad loss when they had to admit something went wrong, they still didnt' do it. Why now, that they won so in Pavlovian style they are presuming they did everything right the last 2 years, would the consider doing it now? And this is what's happened. In 2012 Reince Priebus was saying the GOP had to do immigration reform. Now he's singing a different tune-because of those kids at the border this Summer, immigration is off the table.
http://www.salon.com/2014/11/07/tea_party_scores_telling_new_win_rnc_dumps_immigration_reform_once_key_policy_priority/
So when GOPers like Schmidt say that maybe the GOP would have passed immigration reform if not for Obama's diabolical but perfectly legal action, Preibus told us himself, they have no intention.
What is really driving the GOP so batty are a few things. One is they thought Obama was going to have to eat humble pie. Yet, right from the start, at his first post-election news conference he's very happily done nothing of the sort.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-washington-post-wants-from-obama.html
Everyone thought the President had to eat all this crow over his 'shellacking' but he refused to take the bait. Why? Maybe because the President is becoming a better economist after 6 tough years. He recognizes a free good when he sees it. Basically, the GOP and the Very Serious Press are going to hate on him no matter what he does. So why not be himself and go big? I mean that was the lesson of this 'shellacking'-repducating your own party offers you no percentage in it. Why not grow some balls?
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/democrats-find-operation-chicken-falls.html
My guess is maybe the public will respect him more now whether they like his actions tonight or otherwise or not. Americans don't like bullies but they don't respect people who humbly submit to bullies and no one is a bigger bunch of bullies than the Republican party.
The President should just stand up for what he believes in for the next 2 years and the Dems should not be tricked into the rationally ignorant move in the Prisoner;s Dilemma of putting him under the bus to save their own hides. After all, it doesn't work-just ask Allison Grimes.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/on-dems-allison-grimes-problem.html
The GOP doesn't understand this simple economic point-if you are going to hate they guy and look to insult, slander, and destroy him, no matter what he does, then why should he ever cooperate with you?
The GOP is so furious for a few reasons. One is what we just touched on-they thought he had to come to them and David Brooks on bended knee and he didn't do that.
The GOP is just the ultimate party of sore winners, when they lose they learn very little, when they win the forget what little they had learned when they lost. In their mind, they now had the largest mandate in human history. Some are now claiming that they have a majority now that will last the next 100 years.
"NRSC chief Greg Walden has announced that the GOP may have built itself “a hundred-year majority” in the House, which is in no way an insane bit of overconfidence. Steve Benen has a good recap of some of the other times Republicans have responded to victories by saying that they would never lose again."
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/democrats-find-operation-chicken-falls.html
Yet what Obama's action does so soon after their glorious romp is show them that they are still impotent. Rush Limbaugh has been saying that this election was all about stopping Barrack Obama why else were all these GOP Senators and Congressmen elected?
However, the GOP wasn't able to stop him tonight no matter how much they talked about government shutdowns, riders on bills, impeachment, or even arresting him.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/11/20/republican-mo-brooks-thinks-send-obama-prison-years.html
All this big talk about throwing a red flag in front of a bull, but this is going to happen just the same. They still can't stop Obama even now. What is enraging them in part is their own powerlessness. Basically the Party of No has abdicated it's own power by refusing to even pass any bills-I mean pass them, not just voting a party line bill in the House that will never see the light of day. So in a vacuum, the executive power is via necessity, stealing it's thunder. Ezra Klein.
"We are operating in what amounts to a parliamentary system without majority rule, a formula for futility," wrote Ron Brownstein in 2010. Perhaps this is a way American politics becomes a little more parliamentary. Congress can, in both this case and most of the hypothetical cases, remove the president's authority to act unilaterally. But insofar as it doesn't, we're creating a system where, in many cases, the tie goes to the executive — and then the electorate can judge the executive based on his actions."
So ultimately this outrages Republcians for three reasons.
1. It shows that Obama is not at all humble in the face of a humiliating loss.
2. It underscores their impotence even after their big wins and lopsided majorities.
3. It is just really going to help Obama and the Democrats a lot politically.
If they weren't such a nasty group you could almost feel sorry for them.
UPDATE: Paul Waldman looks at why the GOP is so angry as well and his list has a good deal
in common with mine. He too leads with number 1. Our lists are very similar.
http://prospect.org/article/why-republicans-are-so-mad-about-obamas-immigration-order
I watched his speech on MSNBC and you had Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and others wondering what the GOP reaction would be. It seems that some at least had hoped the GOP reaction would be positive! I find such an idea laughable. I knew they'd react as themselves-just spoilt, bratty bullies who just want their own way always, all the time, without ever allowing logic to intrude in their absurd demands.
Republican Steve Schmidt then came on the show and showed that my pessimism was utterly and completely on target. He was talking so fast and he was sweating and just making not a whit of sense. Chris Hayes pointed out that the GOP only wants to discuss process here-isn't this s clear hint they're losing on the issues? However, Schmidt would have none of it-turns out 'process is important.' He just believes that Obama did something unprecedented here, though, he didn't try to claim it was illegal-and not many Republicans are seriously trying to claim this was illegal. Because Obama did this terrible thing that is actually totally legal the GOP won't pass immigration reform that it wasn't going to pass anyway.
This is why their threats have been so laughable-you know, doing this will be waving a red flag in front of a bull, do this and there will never be immigration reform. The reality is the GOP has no intention of doing immigration reform. Think about it. After 2012, they had decided they had to do it-the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove, the Koch Brothers, the RNC all understood this.
Yet they didn't do it. A bipartisan bill passed the Senate but then Boehner just let it collect rust in the House. So after a bad loss when they had to admit something went wrong, they still didnt' do it. Why now, that they won so in Pavlovian style they are presuming they did everything right the last 2 years, would the consider doing it now? And this is what's happened. In 2012 Reince Priebus was saying the GOP had to do immigration reform. Now he's singing a different tune-because of those kids at the border this Summer, immigration is off the table.
http://www.salon.com/2014/11/07/tea_party_scores_telling_new_win_rnc_dumps_immigration_reform_once_key_policy_priority/
So when GOPers like Schmidt say that maybe the GOP would have passed immigration reform if not for Obama's diabolical but perfectly legal action, Preibus told us himself, they have no intention.
What is really driving the GOP so batty are a few things. One is they thought Obama was going to have to eat humble pie. Yet, right from the start, at his first post-election news conference he's very happily done nothing of the sort.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-washington-post-wants-from-obama.html
Everyone thought the President had to eat all this crow over his 'shellacking' but he refused to take the bait. Why? Maybe because the President is becoming a better economist after 6 tough years. He recognizes a free good when he sees it. Basically, the GOP and the Very Serious Press are going to hate on him no matter what he does. So why not be himself and go big? I mean that was the lesson of this 'shellacking'-repducating your own party offers you no percentage in it. Why not grow some balls?
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/democrats-find-operation-chicken-falls.html
My guess is maybe the public will respect him more now whether they like his actions tonight or otherwise or not. Americans don't like bullies but they don't respect people who humbly submit to bullies and no one is a bigger bunch of bullies than the Republican party.
The President should just stand up for what he believes in for the next 2 years and the Dems should not be tricked into the rationally ignorant move in the Prisoner;s Dilemma of putting him under the bus to save their own hides. After all, it doesn't work-just ask Allison Grimes.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/on-dems-allison-grimes-problem.html
The GOP doesn't understand this simple economic point-if you are going to hate they guy and look to insult, slander, and destroy him, no matter what he does, then why should he ever cooperate with you?
The GOP is so furious for a few reasons. One is what we just touched on-they thought he had to come to them and David Brooks on bended knee and he didn't do that.
The GOP is just the ultimate party of sore winners, when they lose they learn very little, when they win the forget what little they had learned when they lost. In their mind, they now had the largest mandate in human history. Some are now claiming that they have a majority now that will last the next 100 years.
"NRSC chief Greg Walden has announced that the GOP may have built itself “a hundred-year majority” in the House, which is in no way an insane bit of overconfidence. Steve Benen has a good recap of some of the other times Republicans have responded to victories by saying that they would never lose again."
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/11/democrats-find-operation-chicken-falls.html
Yet what Obama's action does so soon after their glorious romp is show them that they are still impotent. Rush Limbaugh has been saying that this election was all about stopping Barrack Obama why else were all these GOP Senators and Congressmen elected?
However, the GOP wasn't able to stop him tonight no matter how much they talked about government shutdowns, riders on bills, impeachment, or even arresting him.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/11/20/republican-mo-brooks-thinks-send-obama-prison-years.html
All this big talk about throwing a red flag in front of a bull, but this is going to happen just the same. They still can't stop Obama even now. What is enraging them in part is their own powerlessness. Basically the Party of No has abdicated it's own power by refusing to even pass any bills-I mean pass them, not just voting a party line bill in the House that will never see the light of day. So in a vacuum, the executive power is via necessity, stealing it's thunder. Ezra Klein.
"We are operating in what amounts to a parliamentary system without majority rule, a formula for futility," wrote Ron Brownstein in 2010. Perhaps this is a way American politics becomes a little more parliamentary. Congress can, in both this case and most of the hypothetical cases, remove the president's authority to act unilaterally. But insofar as it doesn't, we're creating a system where, in many cases, the tie goes to the executive — and then the electorate can judge the executive based on his actions."
"A related argument is that this might help break congressional gridlock. As the executive branch begins to do more, members of Congress will want to recapture their rightful role as the engine of federal action — and they will decide that compromise is less painful than irrelevance."
http://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7253779/obama-immigration-plan-facts
I don't know that they will ever make this choice-they'd rather bite their noses off, they've shown again and again. However, whatever, they will do or more likely not do, they are irrelevant. Obama's action here brings this home to them.
They truly are powerless here. There really isn't too much they can do in terms of defunding either as the USCIS is self-funded.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/defund-obama-immigration-action_n_6191958.html
Finally, this is really bad politics for the GOP-and great politics for Obama. What matters in the end-whether or not the President takes a short-term hit on this-is what this means for the Latino vote in 2016. It's pretty clear who is a friend to the Latino community and who isn't at this point.
This is making the GOP crazy. They know it helps the Dems and kills them. What really worries them is the crazy GOP statements coming out.
Robert Costa looks at how terrified GOP leaders are that Obama’s move will unleash the crazies:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/11/20/happy-hour-roundup-487/For Republicans the roiling debate over the president’s decision is not only a fight with the White House, but a test of whether they can contain some of the unhelpful passions among their swelling majorities in both chambers. The task is keeping on-message and away from the controversial and sometimes offensive comments that have traditionally hindered attempts to bolster support for the party among Hispanics.….it is the tone of outraged rank-and-file members that most worries GOP elders. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, they do not want to see Republicans tagged by Democrats as hostile toward Hispanics. Even as they battle the president on legal and legislative grounds, they would like to see Republicans shore up support with immigrants and their families.
So ultimately this outrages Republcians for three reasons.
1. It shows that Obama is not at all humble in the face of a humiliating loss.
2. It underscores their impotence even after their big wins and lopsided majorities.
3. It is just really going to help Obama and the Democrats a lot politically.
If they weren't such a nasty group you could almost feel sorry for them.
UPDATE: Paul Waldman looks at why the GOP is so angry as well and his list has a good deal
in common with mine. He too leads with number 1. Our lists are very similar.
http://prospect.org/article/why-republicans-are-so-mad-about-obamas-immigration-order
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