Obama’s Immigration Taunt Works As Congressional repugicans Descend Into Chaos

President Obama’s taunts of unilateral action on immigration have worked as chaos and disunity are ripping through repugicans before they take the majority in Congress.

The New York Times reported that the president’s strategy is already paying off,

But Mr. Obama, in insisting that he will take unilateral action to overhaul the nation’s immigration system, has delivered to his adversaries a compelling political target they may not be able to resist. On a trip to Asia this week, Mr. Obama effectively said “I told you so” to repugicans, saying he gave them every opportunity to avoid the action he is preparing to take.

The taunt by Mr. Obama seems to have worked. A day after stealing from Democrats in the midterm elections this month, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky tried to immediately pre-empt any talk of a government shutdown. Now, a week later, some members of Mr. McConnell’s cabal are already talking about doing just that.

The calls for House repugicans to shut down the government in December are growing louder by the hour. Beyond the division over a government shutdown, the years long rift within the repugican cabal over impeachment is also moving front and center.

Joe Barton (r-TX) put impeachment on the table in a recent interview, but Trey Gowdy (r-SC) told Faux News that impeachment was not happening, “No, and nobody’s discussing impeachment, but pundits and commentators. First of all impeachment is a punishment, not a remedy. Second of all, the only people who want us to talk about impeachment are the president’s allies.”

President Obama knew that the results of a what was an essentially red state senate election were papering over the same divides and internal conflicts within the repugican cabal that have existed for years. Instead of taking the president’s intention to act alone seriously and scheduling a House vote on the Senate passed immigration bill, repugicans are falling apart and defaulting back to their standard behavior of fighting among themselves while blaming the president.

The calls to shut down the government are going to be difficult for House repugicans to resist. Their supporters want a government shutdown. Red state repugicans have also been dreaming of impeachment since the president first took office. Obama is now in a position where he doesn’t have to navigate between the repugican House majority and the Democratic Senate majority. The advantage of the new political environment is that he has more freedom to maneuver.

The president has placed the repugicans in a no-win position. Either they shut down the government, and start their new Congress off in chaos or they back down immigration and begin the new Congress in defeat.

Barack Obama is the puppeteer who can make the repugicans jump on command with a simple tug of the string.