Grab that lawn chair. Come over and sit by me.
Cold one?
Here.
Now watch 'em go about the business of further fragmenting the Republican party.
Don't move! Shhh! Don't interrupt them! They can do it all by themselves!
... It’s unclear exactly what sort of immigration enforcement funds Republicans are contemplating withholding.
This may not be the last proposal congressional leaders come up with — in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to go through a few more before they find one that the tea partyers can live with. What that suggests is that the bulk of Republicans’ time and attention in the coming months will be spent on managing this internal conflict — satisfying their base, keeping intra-Republican arguments in check, and trying to do it while finding effective ways to stymie the administration.
But it’s unlikely that they’ll be particularly effective at that last goal if they’re constantly looking within. Today we also learned that Jonathan Gruber will be testifying before the House, which I guarantee is something that will have lots of members excited. In some ways it’s the perfect microcosm of the GOP’s current status. Republicans will go in sure that they’re really going to stick it to Obama this time, do a lot of gavel-pounding, and find that they accomplished little but giving conservative media something to talk about for another day. ...PaulWaldman,WaPo
Yeah, but the Democrats are in no better shape at the end of all this... Or are they?
Meanwhile, Obama will still be president and will be spending his time doing all the things that keep making his opponents mad. ...Waldman,WaPo
I'm beginning to think Obama has known, all along, something about the Republican party that most of us have ignored. The fight we've all been drawn into -- the fight that has damaged and split pretty much the whole country -- has really been an internal fight over on the right. Maybe if we'd treated it as such (rather than get involved in and wounded by it), we'd be a lot better off.
Obama tossed the immigration bomb Republicans have been so terrified about right into their party. He knew what he was doing. Our job is to watch, enjoy, and use the free time to get up and running for 2016.
So sit here for a minute and watch them smack each other around. They're getting more defensive every minute, weakening their party.
Finish that beer. And then let's us go on the offensive.
