should've. House Republican leadership had put forward two principles
for immigration reform, one of which was that "specific enforcement triggers"
had to be met in order for House Republicans to advance a bill.
"Specific" was exactly the wrong word here, since this was a
fill-in-the-blank provision to be decided on later. This was the flag
that everyone was watching. The common wisdom was that if they were able
to wrangle the base on board, the triggers would be half-way reasonable
-- or at least do-able. Undocumented people would have to learn English
-- assuming they didn't already know it -- or complete high school or
an equivalent. If they didn't, then the trigger would be completely
unreasonable, like an impenetrable fence at the southern border or
something crazy, like mandatory prison sentences. If the push to pass
the bill failed, the signal was expected to be a poison pill -- a
requirement that was either so noxious that Democrats would reject it
out of hand or so technically impossible that it could never be met.
That's what everyone expected to happen. If the House killed immigration reform, that was the way it was supposed to die. No one foresaw this ignoble end:
Associated Press:And in case you don't get the message, Rep. Paul Ryan -- who'd taken the
Republicans are starting to lay the blame on President Barack Obama if
an overhaul of the nation's broken immigration system fails to become
law.
The GOP's emerging plan on immigration is to criticize Obama as an
untrustworthy leader and his administration as an unreliable enforcer of
any laws that might be passed. Perhaps realizing the odds of finding a
consensus on immigration are long, the Republicans have started telling
voters that if the GOP-led House doesn't take action this election year,
it is Obama's fault.
"If the president had been serious about this the last five years, we'd be further along in this discussion," Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, said Sunday.
lead on the bill -- said pretty much the same thing; "Here's the issue
that all Republicans agree on: We don't trust the president to enforce
the law."
No one expected this turn of events -- mostly because it's stupid...[CLICK TO READ FULL POST]
