Hear, hear!
Sessions actually seems to know something about political tactics and strategy (and what commenter “eric” would call “the activist game”). Which is more than I can say for most of the GOP.
And although I’m not all that familiar with Sessions, so far I’ve very much liked what he has to say about the illegal immigration/alien crisis.
Sessions did something rather extraordinary yesterday. He helped to unite the warring Republicans behind a bill that actually seemed reasonable, and he did it in record time. But perhaps more importantly, he suggested the beginning of an approach to try to circumvent the fact that the bill is destined to die in the Senate at the hands of Harry Reid and his Democrats.
Here’s how the first trick was managed, although we don’t get many details:
“I applaud the hard work of House Republicans in putting together this package, and in particular would like to recognize the steadfast and unflinching efforts from members of our Alabama delegation,” Sessions said in a statement provided exclusively to Breitbart News. “The border bill has been substantially improved, and provides a marked contrast to the Senate Democrat bill—defeated on a bipartisan basis—that only perpetuated the crisis.”
Sessions’s praise comes after much turmoil in the House of Representatives over the past few weeks as Speaker John Boehner tried but failed to pass a supplemental appropriations bill on the border crisis that critics said didn’t address the root cause of the border crisis: President Barack Obama’s prior and planned executive amnesties. The House leadership pulled a bill late Thursday that critics like Sessions and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), as well as a core group of House conservatives, excoriated after Boehner and his new leadership team couldn’t get the votes to pass it. Afterwards, Boehner worked with members like Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to improve the bill—fixing its flaws and focusing the package on stopping Obama’s planned executive amnesty. Then the House GOP conference coalesced around the new bill package and passed them both.
You might say: so what? After all, Harry Reid will sit on the bill and never let his precious Democrats vote on it. So why did the House Republicans bother to pass it, except to be able to say they tried?
The difference between this House bill and many others that have met the fate of dying in the Senate is that this particular issue has grabbed the attention of the American people as almost no other recent event has, and the Republican position on it is enormously popular whereas the Democrat position is hugely unpopular. So this is the sort of bill that has at least a chance of making people sit up and take notice, if the Republicans can only get the word out.
That’s why I was impressed with this from Sessions. He’s got the right idea:
“Now that the House has passed this measure to block the President’s unlawful actions, we will demand that every Senate Democrat be held to account,” Sessions said. “We will fight, and keep fighting, for its passage. I appeal tonight to all Americans: ask your Senator where they stand on President Obama’s executive amnesty. Ask them where they stand on protecting unemployed citizens from a plan which will give work permits and jobs to millions of illegal workers.”
Sessions concluded by highlighting the significance of the decision ahead for U.S. senators from both parties. “Senators face a time for choosing: to be complicit in the nullification of our laws, or to end this lawlessness and create an immigration policy we can be proud of,” Sessions said. “Mr. Reid: you and every single member of your conference will face this choice. On the defining issue of our nation’s laws and sovereignty, there is nowhere to hide.”
I don’t know whether Sessions, and/or the GOP, and/or the right, can execute this plan. To succeed, it needs ordinary people to get fired up to make a stink about it to their Democratic representatives (and RINO Republicans who previously supported amnesty). Also, they need to talk to their neighbors and alert them that the Democrats were not looking out for the interests of the people or their wishes. That’s what happened regarding Obamacare in 2010—but not enough people, not nearly enough. The effort needs to be organized and it needs to be relentless. The importance of this fight cannot be overestimated—this is a battle that must be won.
It is truly refreshing to see a Republican such as Sessions willing to speak coherently and with passion, and to show actual leadership and the ability to organize, convince, and rouse. The GOP “leaders” often seem to have no concept of what the word “lead” means, and seem unaware of the idea that they must publicize what they’ve done and drive home what the Democrats have done that hurts people.
This time, Republicans have not abdicated the responsibility to deal with the crisis, and Democrats have taken a line on immigration that benefits almost no one except the illegal immigrants themselves and their families: not the poor, not blacks, not Asians, not the middle class, and not even the Hispanic immigrants who are already here legally. That shouldn’t be so difficult a point to drive home to the American people.
[NOTE: And this "fire Harry Reid" campaign is another good idea, although it doesn't seem to have gotten much traction. The emphasis needs to be on the fact that Republicans have passed a lot of bills in the House that Reid has blocked in the Senate.
None of this has a chance of changing the minds of any liberals or the left, of course. But those Independent LIVs are low-hanging fruit.]
