The Tears Of A Clown – GOP House Speaker John Boehner

GOP House Speaker John Boehner is well known for his habit of tearing up and crying.  Unfortunately, they appear to be the Tears of a Clown.  President Obama had to take the action he did Thursday on immigration reform because John Boehner would not. Boehner has put his own self-interest in remaining Speaker ahead of the interests of his country. On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill by a 68 to 32 vote. Boehner has since steadfastly refused to bring it to the House floor for a vote because he knows it would pass.

Tears of of Clown – Putting his own self-interest ahead his country

Instead, Boehner prefers to huff and puff in faux outrage and indignation.simply to placate the crazies in the Tea Party wing of the House. Why?  If he put the Senate bi-partisan bill to a vote in the House and it passed the Tea Party crazies would revolt and remove him as Speaker. To Boehner, his own political ambitions are far more important than fixing a broken immigration system. Profiles in Courage this is not. It’s more like Profiles in Self-Preservation.

President Obama’s plan is NOT Amnesty – but President Reagan’s was

There is much for Republicans and all Americans to like in the bi-partisan Senate Bill including the fact that it was drafted with the help of GOP Senators Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake and John McCain. It’s been endorsed by every important GOP constituency – big business, farmers, and most religious groups. Only Tea Party crazies despise it because they cling to the ridiculous fantasy that somehow 11 million men, women and children could be rounded up and deported. They can’t say how that would work.

Even Fox News' Megyn Kelly agreed Obama’s plan is not ‘amnesty’

In somewhat of a surprise to me, and I suppose a real shocker to Faux News fan boys, Megyn Kelly said on her November 19th edition of The Kelly File that President Obama is not actually pursuing "amnesty," because "amnesty is citizenship and that's not what [Obama] is talking about." Kelly also explained how conservatives purposely misuse the word "amnesty" for political gain: "That's a hot-button term that the right uses to sort of get people upset."  Kudo’s to Megyn.

Republican’s Michelle Bachman and Steve King – as crazy as it gets!

Just to be absolutely clear what the Republican caucus position is on fixing the broken immigration system, let’s just look back to August 1st of this year. The GOP passed legislation that would effectively require the deportation of everyone in the U.S. illegally, including young people brought as children who attended college or joined the military. It passed by a vote of 216 to 192. John Boehner allowed THIS vote to take place but not the bi-partisan Senate Bill that dealt with the problem.

(In a non-related side-note, I’ve always thought that Rep. Michelle Bachman’s head is not screwed on quite tight enough. Perhaps her family should call a plumber who could use a really big pipe wrench to give her head a few turns to tighten it up a bit.)

    President Obama to Congress:  Just Pass a Bill

So for now, and into the foreseeable future, Boehner and company will revert to what they do best – doing nothing but whine and howl!  Except, that is, for passing  hopeless, fantastically impossible bills that will never survive Democratic filibusters in the Senate nor a certain Presidential veto. It’s all a show vote for the crazies. In fact, their idea of defunding President Obama’s directives on immigration have already been shot down by their own Republican House Committee:

The Hill reported:  “This agency is entirely self-funded through the fees it collects on various immigration applications,” the committee said in a statement. “Congress does not appropriate funds for any of its operations, including the issuance of immigration status or work permits, with the exception of the ‘E-Verify’ program. Therefore, the appropriations process cannot be used to ‘defund’ the agency.”

That probably won’t stop the GOP crazies though as they might use this action by the President on immigration just to try and break their own record of over 50 votes to repeal Obamacare.  Really, all the GOP has to do is “pass a bill”. Instead, poor old downtrodden Speaker of the House in name only (SHINO), John Boehner will continue to do what he does best – shed the Tears of a Clown.

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