America vs The Republican Party On Immigration Reform

Steve King didn't hijack the GOP-- he just voices their collective id

Wednesday Boehner caved to the Know Nothings and racists inside the Republican House Conference and let them get their way on a mass deportation bill. This is relatively popular in blood-red Republican districts, especially in the Old Confederacy, where bigotry and paranoia is as much a part of life as breathing and farting are. The problem for Boehner and less hatred-oriented Republicans in Congress, is that normal people do not support this action. Only two right-wing Democrats voted for it-- Blue Dogs Collin Peterson (MN) and Brad Ashford (NE), both of whom represent very Republican districts, albeit districts where the voters-- even in a strong Republican year-- indicated they were fed up with the Republican agenda by elected Democrats.

A new poll released by CBS News shows that 62% of Americans favor Obama's executive action on immigration, despite the Republicans' and Fox's hysteria about the end of the world.

The president has been criticized by some for bypassing Congress in issuing these executive actions, and Americans are divided on whether or not Mr. Obama exceeded his authority. While 48 percent of Americans think Mr. Obama acted within his authority as president, 46 percent think these orders exceeded his authority. Views on this issue break along party lines.

Still, most Americans-- 55 percent-- think Congress should let these executive actions stand. Just 40 percent think Congress should overturn them.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans support legal status for illegal immigrants currently in the U.S., including over half who favor a path to citizenship. Twenty-seven percent think illegal immigrants should be required to leave the U.S.

That 27% aren't likely to vote for many Democrats when they can vote for a Republican extremist. Call me crazy, but maybe the Democrats should focus their energies and strategies on the 69% instead. Neither Jeb Bush nor Mitt Romney has weighed in on Wednesday's House vote. I bet neither wants to either.

Yesterday, at the Republican congressional retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania Jeff Denham, a California Republican with a huge Hispanic voting population, told reporters that he thinks his colleagues didn't understand what they were even voting on Wednesday. That sounds like he thinks Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and KKK sympathizer/Whip Steve Scalise hoodwinked members too dumb to read the bill. "I think the Morton Memos... I don't think there was a clear understanding of what that quick amendment that came to the floor was, or the actual repercussions it would have had. If there was a clear understanding, you wouldn't have passed an amendment that would've gotten rid of prosecutorial discretion, and then pass another amendment that puts a new bar on the top tier. So I don't think there was a clear understanding from everybody in the conference that actually voted on that."