House Speaker John Boehner has announced that Republicans probably won't do anything on immigration reform, because "there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws."
Looking outside my window, I see law-and-order and no signs of anarchy on the horizon, which makes me think America's laws still stand for something, blemishes notwithstanding.
But Boehner's concern about Obama not enforcing laws prompted Sen. Charles Schumer to suggest that Congress pass an immigration bill this year, with the stipulation that it not go into effect until 2017, after Obama leaves office. It was a creative idea, but Boehner rejected it, leading to ridicule by Comedy Central's John Stuart. See below.
On a Fort Morgan radio show last week, Colorado's own Rep. Cory Gardner sided with Boehner about being unable to trust the president to enforce U.S. law, but he added a new twist.
Gardner thinks Obama has relationship problems:
Gardner: And really, it's unfortunate that the fact, this president put no effort into building relationships with Congress over the past four years on either side of the aisle. It's really starting to hurt his policy efforts now.
Omitted was any consideration of the idea that the relationship-management issues involved in immigration reform had more do to with the relationship between the Tea Party and establishment Republicans, not between Obama and Congress.
If you've been following the immigration debate you know that a bipartisan immigration-reform bill passed the U.S. Senate months ago.
Hopes were high that the Republican-controlled House would pass the bill. But observers agree that the wacky Tea-Party wing of the Republican Party managed to stop the immigration bill from being voted on in the House.
Normal Republicans in both the House and Senate lacked the relationship skills to convince the Tea Partiers, like Gardner and Aurora Republican Mike Coffman, in the House to get on board, so the immigration bill sits idle, even though (sorry to repeat myself) it passed the Senate with GOP support!
So Gardner didn't realize it, but he was on to something when he brought up congressional relationship issues as being a root cause for the failure of immigration reform.
But Gardner was referring to the wrong relationships. It's relations between the Tea Party and everyday Republicans that need work!
I'd like to hear Gardner on the radio discussing how to improve the relationships between him (a Tea Partier) and his fellow Republicans, allowing immigration reform to finally move forward.
if he lacks ideas, I can refer him to some good therapists.