{"id":1225,"date":"2015-02-25T21:14:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T03:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2015-03-01T09:52:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T15:52:17","slug":"1225","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/02\/1225.html","title":{"rendered":"No surprise, I guess. . . the Senate GOP caves on immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"800px-US-border-notice\"<\/a>On Cuba, after what was claimed to be intense negotiations, Obama announced as much liberalization of policy with respect to Cuba as he is able to do without new legislation, in exchange for, well, virtually nothing. \u00a0Yes, Cuba released a few political prisoners, but didn\u2019t make any fundamental, or even cosmetic, changes in the system that imprisons people for political reasons in the first place. \u00a0What were these negotiations? \u00a0From all appearances, Obama didn\u2019t actually wring any concessions from Cuba, because he didn\u2019t really care \u2014 he just wanted to normalize relations and it looked better politically to claim this was a bilateral rather than unilateral plan.<\/p>\n

With respect to Iran, it\u2019s the same thing. \u00a0At any rate, it\u2019s of great concern that Obama and his administration isn\u2019t pressing particularly hard for a deal that prevents Iran from getting the bomb, because they don\u2019t care particularly much.<\/p>\n

And what of the Senate GOP leadership, which has now announced (see reports here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>) that it will cave, fully and unilaterally, to the Democrats on the issue of allowing Obama to implement his work permits-for-illegals plan. \u00a0True, they claim that they\u2019re not caving, merely splitting the issue into two bills, one funding the DHS and another prohibiting funding for the amnesty program, but this either takes the American public for fools, or \u2014 well, actually, it just takes the American public for fools, as it\u2019s clear that putting forth a bill to prohibit the amnesty program is not serious if it\u2019s done while surrendering any leverage to get it passed; the Democrats could even pass it, secure in the knowledge that Obama would just veto it anyway.<\/p>\n

(It\u2019s a Survivor-ish sort of move, when one player knows that another person to whom he has pledged loyalty is slated to be voted off; in order to nominally stay true to his promise, he throws away his vote, so that the doomed player is still voted off, but the swing vote can still say, \u201cI kept my promise because I didn\u2019t write your name down.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Their other rationale? \u00a0The claim that the court stay means that they\u2019ve already won.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us feel like the courts gave us a major victory,\u201d Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said outlining the rationale for McConnell to offer a clean DHS bill now after weeks of not backing down. \u201cSometimes it makes a lot of sense to bank victories and move ahead.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But this is foolhardy. \u00a0If anything, this ought to improve their leverage in negotiating with Democrats: \u00a0\u201clook, the courts aren\u2019t going to let the plan be implemented anyway, so why not please your constituents by opposing it?\u201d \u00a0But the court decision, which I\u2019d been meaning to write about anyway, is not a done deal. \u00a0I did not put a halt to the program, with certainty, as the administration is still able to look for a court to support their view, and was told, in any case, that it is required to undertake the lengthy comment and review period applicable for major changes.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s clear that their heart simply wasn\u2019t in this fight. \u00a0They\u2019ve got their millions, and are equally able to ensure that their children will be financially set, too.<\/p>\n

(Incidentally, here\u2019s a telling article<\/a> on the administration\u2019s position on the Hansen court ruling, originally printed in the Chicago Tribune but online at the L.A. Times. \u00a0The basic logic of the administration, as sympathetically reported: \u00a0time is of the essence, because, in order to make the program de-facto permanent, they need to process as many people as possible before the new president comes into office. \u00a0This hardly seems like a rationale that\u2019s going to persuade a judge that they \u201curgently\u201d need to proceed, and, in fact, seems to affirm their opponents\u2019 claim, that implementing the program would be un-doable so should be halted until its legality is resolved. \u00a0But given how political many judges are, it\u2019s still a complete abdication of responsibility for the GOP to say, \u201cthe courts have ruled in our favor, so we don\u2019t need to do anything.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Cuba, after what was claimed to be intense negotiations, Obama announced as much liberalization of policy with respect to Cuba as he is able to do without new legislation, in exchange for, well, virtually nothing. \u00a0Yes, Cuba released a few political prisoners, but didn\u2019t make any fundamental, or even cosmetic, changes in the system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":1382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nNo surprise, I guess. . . the Senate GOP caves on immigration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Cuba, after what was claimed to be intense negotiations, Obama announced as much liberalization of policy with respect to Cuba as he is able to do\" 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