Monday morning, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough warned that the one thing that could cost the GOP control of the Senate this year would be to pass immigration reform. That same day the editors of National Review shouted “don’t do it” with the warning that history proves “President Obama obviously can’t be trusted” to abide by any kind immigration deal.
Though not in a way the media, GOP Establishment, big business, and Barack Obama would like, it looks as though conservatives, the grassroots, and various elements of the Republican Party are unifying on this issue. National Review’s reasoning starts with the obvious, that immigration reform is only seen as a priority by 3% of the American people and therefore hardly the burning issue the media and Democrats pretend it is.
“The other prudential reason not to act is that President Obama obviously can’t be trusted,” NR writes. “Any immigration deal would have to trade enhanced enforcement for an amnesty. Since the president refuses to enforce … provisions of immigration law he finds uncongenial, he obviously can’t be relied on to follow up on his end of any bargain.”
If President Obama has proven anything during his time in office it is that he has no regard for the rule of law or the Constitutional wisdom of divided government. Tomorrow, Obama is promising a State of the Union address where he will flaunt his “pen and phone” promise to ignore Congress. The president makes no secret of these things. To trust him to enforce a border that keep Democrats out is utter folly.
Like many conservatives, including myself, NR believes “in incremental immigration reform.” Going to conference with the Gang of Eight’s disaster of a Senate bill is a trap that will do to immigration what ObamaCare has done to healthcare (the Senate bill is a bureaucratic boondoggle).
This sucker move to appease big business and the almost-always-wrong consultant class will also cost the GOP control of the Senate in 2014 after the disgusted grassroots ask “what’s the difference?” and stay home on Election Day.
Win the Senate, increase your hold on the House, and craft sensible reform in 2015. Sen. Marco Rubio paid a heavy political price for his role in writing and passing that Senate disaster. If the GOP can’t see that Rubio was the canary in the coalmine, they really are hopeless.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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