The Immigration Trap

The President and his Party lost the latest election in a grand way.  At least part of the victory in some states is likely to be attributed to their stance on immigration, though it is always difficult to nationalize a series of essentially state and local elections.  But for the purposes of this discussion, let us assume that indeed, the President and his Party's stance on immigration--specifically, the perception that they want to give legal status to those here illegally--was an important contributor to the defeat.

In post election news conferences, the President and his co-combatants John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, have begun to stake out their positions for the coming political battle.  The President has insisted that he possesses executive powers that will allow him to grant quasi-legal status to millions here illegally, and if a bill is not passed that meets his conditions, he will exercise that power.  Boehner and McConnell insist that they will not be blackmailed, and that the President's exercise of such dubious authority would have consequences.

The issue here for me isn't the political battle per se, so much as it is the consequences.  So far, neither Boehner nor McConnell has used the "I" word (impeachment) to describe what they consider those consequences to be.  That said, many, and I mean many, on the Right are beginning to lace their dialogue with references to impeachment as the means to deal with the President's potential overstepping of authority.

At the highest levels of the Republican Party, it must be acknowledged that unless Obama personally cuts out the beating heart of a virgin, illegal immigrant on the Arizona/Mexico border while selling secrets to the Chinese,  this issue cannot and will not trigger anything like a move for impeachment.

Let's face it folks, this is a trap of the highest order, one designed to ensnare Republicans and allow us to indulge the lesser angels of our nature--which include the remarkable capacity to self-destruct over unforced errors.  The President and his Democratic henchmen KNOW that there would be zero chance that the President would actually be removed from office over an abuse of power charge, but the country would once again be treated to the circus that is impeachment without removal.  This entire fight is designed to suck up all the available political oxygen while making Republicans look unhinged and incapable of governing without recourse to Soviet style show trials.  We cannot swing at this pitch in the dirt.