After House Speaker John Boehner promised the American people there would be no conference committee on the Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, The Atlantic‘s Molly Ball is out with a new report detailing how amnesty supporters are cooking up a scheme for revenge.
“For the broad, well-organized coalition of immigration-reform activists, [Boehner’s] statement was a stunning blow,” Ball wrote. “If Boehner keeps that pledge, he will have rendered moot the months of wheeling and dealing it took to get a massive, bipartisan bill through the Senate in June, forcing the upper chamber to start from scratch even if the House manages to get its act together and pass its own bill or group of bills–a prospect that appears increasingly unlikely.”
Ball noted that just hours before Boehner made the promise he would not resurrect the Gang of Eight bill via conference, he had been ambushed by immigration activists pushing him to grant amnesty. In that exchange, Ball said Boehner “made encouraging noises” but later in the day “pour[ed] cold water on immigration’s legislative prospects.” She wrote this “neatly summarized the plight of the reformers, many of whom are coming to grips with the possibility that their efforts, despite politicians’ apparent receptiveness, have come to naught.”
“The reformers’ official line remains one of optimism that the House will act, perhaps even before the end of 2013,” Ball wrote. “But many activists have already begun to take a more aggressive tack, arguing that lobbying is over–it’s time for revenge.”
Ball quotes two different pro-amnesty activists as part of the plan pushing for revenge: Frank Sharry of America’s Voice and Joshua Culling of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), Grover Norquist’s outfit.
“We can’t force them to get to yes, but we can make them pay a price for getting to no,” Sharry told Ball. “If this Congress isn’t going to pass immigration reform, let’s elect a Congress that will.”
Ball noted that even Sharry admits that there are not enough opportunities for pro-amnesty Democrats to pick up enough seats to take the back the House of Representatives from the GOP. “The carrot didn’t work, so it’s time for the stick,” Ball wrote. “Sharry estimates there are five to 10 Republicans in the House who could be defeated if the Latino vote goes strongly enough against them–not enough to hand the House to Democrats, who are currently 17 seats from the majority, but enough to send a message.”
“For most of the year, advocates, even those on the left, have sought to give Republican members room to maneuver rather than going on the attack,” she claimed. “But that’s changing as the shift to campaign mode begins.”
As for Culling, Ball noted that he thinks this is an “emotionally wrenching juncture” for a pro-amnesty “movement that, until recently, was riding high.”
“The reason there’s such a sadness is that we got very close,” Culling told Ball. “The momentum for the better part of a year was on our side.”
Ball described Culling as a “conservative,” even though it was just discovered the outfit he works for, ATR, is funded largely by Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS. According to tax documents released by Crossroads, Rove’s group gave ATR $26 million in 2012.
Rove is actively working against conservatives nationwide in an effort to stop the Tea Party movement. His funding of Norquist’s organization–which has supported amnesty and publicly used progressive media in its efforts against Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) during their attempt to defund Obamacare–seems to be part of that war against conservatives.
Culling claims the GOP, by not rushing to grant amnesty to illegal aliens, has lost an opportunity to save itself. “On the left, you have a bunch of ‘Dreamers’ and undocumented folks who think of themselves as Americans and are still technically criminals,” Culling said. “On the right, you have people who care about the [Republican] Party and feel like this was our one opportunity [to change the way voters perceive the GOP]. Everyone was on board the week after the election, and we pissed it away again.”
Culling is the same ATR official who, earlier this year, was found to have organized with other pro-amnesty figures to try to twist the Boston Marathon bombing into a talking point that supported their cause, as emails obtained by Breitbart News showed.
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