Bluffing

For months now President Obama has been using his bully pulpit to bully Republicans into overreacting about his pledge to grant, by executive action, amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.  (I happen to believe that the mass influx of Central American immigrant children this summer was also part of this stratagem.) This time the Republicans didn't bite at this obvious attempt to sidetrack their path to sweeping legislative victories in this fall's elections. Despite a few hot-headed threats of impeachment or a government shutdown, Republicans mostly kept their powder dry ... and so our fearless leader has now postponed his immigration action until after the election ... see: Associated Press Story. He was clearly bluffing then ... and is probably bluffing now.

So, if the Republicans do win a sweeping victory in November and, if Obama is foolish enough to actually act unconstitutionally on immigration, then the Republicans will have many more options to counter this presidential tyranny. If Dirty Harry Reid can no longer block any Senate action, then all sorts of bills can be presented to the president for his veto ... hopefully many reflecting the will of the American people ... nothing vindictive or petty ... just good clean legislation meant to purge the Aegean stables of the mess that this administration has created. The areas of health-care reform, immigration reform, tax reform, infrastructure improvements, energy policy reform, reduced government regulation, military preparedness, etc. ... all are prime candidates.

The more of these popular actions that Obama vetoes, the deeper the hole he will be digging for the Democrat party ... and the more defections from its ranks might occur ... possibly even enough to override some of Obama's vetoes. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants. And wouldn't that also grease the skids for a possible Republican win in the 2016 presidential race. That happy event might be called a royal flush.