Posted on 11/05/2015 6:17:23 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
With Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s comments about immigration Sunday, the top two Republicans in Congress have now declared dead the prospects of an overhaul before the 2016 elections.
In the aftermath of 2012, when Latinos made up 10 percent of the electorate and President Barack Obama was re-elected resoundingly, Republican lawmakers and strategists predicted the GOP’s White House ambitions were directly tied to the passage of comprehensive immigration legislation. Many of those voices haven’t changed their tune.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the four “gang of eight†Republicans who successfully navigated an immigration overhaul through the Senate in 2013, told CQ Roll Call it will be “extremely difficult†for a Republican to win the White House without action on immigration.
“I wouldn’t predict, but I think that when you have a majority of a Hispanic population right now identifying themselves as in favor of some kind of path to citizenship and it’s important to them, I think it makes it more difficult,†McCain said Tuesday.
That’s a softened take from June 2014, when he said it wouldn’t matter whom the party nominated for president if the GOP blocked immigration legislation. That came just a month after Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue suggested Republicans shouldn’t even put up a candidate if they failed to pass an overhaul.
Two other Republicans from the gang of eight, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida, have discussed immigration policy on the presidential campaign trail. But Rubio backed off his advocacy for the 2013 bill after conservatives tagged a provision on granting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants as “amnesty.â€
The presidential race isn’t the only one where this issue could play a significant role. Republicans, who have a vulnerable majority going into next year, are defending Rubio’s open seat in Florida and their top two pick-up opportunities are in Nevada and Colorado — all states with sizable Hispanic populations.
Ryan’s immigration comments Sunday mirrored what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said right before the August recess — both pinned their decision not to pursue comprehensive legislation on Obama’s executive actions, some of which are being challenged in court.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., the fourth Republican in the Senate gang of eight, agreed that the prospects of a wide-ranging bill are dead for now, though he noted “something on the margins†is possible. While Flake believes an immigration overhaul isn’t a prerequisite to getting a Republican in the White House, he said a successful GOP candidate will need a plan.
“I think that any Republican running for president has to have a realistic approach,†Flake told CQ Roll Call. “That’s not to say that immigration reform has to be accomplished in this Congress — I wish it would be, I’m still pushing for it. But whoever’s running for president as a Republican has to have a rational position.â€
Of the GOP presidential candidates, Flake said business tycoon Donald Trump “does not†have a rational position, but those who do include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Rubio and Graham.
On Sunday, Ryan said pieces such as border enforcement or interior security are possible this Congress, but comprehensive legislation won’t happen “with a president whose proven himself untrustworthy on this issue.†That position supports a pledge Ryan offered to House conservatives last month as he sought a consensus for his speaker bid.
Following his comments on national network TV, conservatives said they scored a major concession from the Wisconsin Republican, who has championed efforts to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants. Members of the House Freedom Caucus said they don’t think he would support that even as a stand-alone bill, separate from a comprehensive overhaul.
McCain agreed that Obama’s actions were “very, very damaging†to the process, especially since Obama didn’t make a strong push for an immigration overhaul when Democrats “had overwhelming majorities in 2009 and 2010.â€
Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin, a fellow gang of eight member, panned using Obama as a scapegoat, noting that the bipartisan Senate bill died in the Republican-controlled House prior to any executive action.
“For some people in politics, any excuse will do — this one is the least credible,†the Illinois Democrat said. “The president took the action he did because the House failed to act. And now, Speaker Ryan is using that as an excuse to continue to fail to act.â€
time for the old sailors home for this fossil.
Here’s my take on it. If you have to totally crash on your core beliefs about sovereignty, an America of assimilated people who deserve to be here and the rule of law, then what in the hell good is it to throw all that away solely so some lazy ass RINO Republican won’t have to work so hard for his real constituents?
This man is crazier than a bag of sh!thouse rats. He is insane.
President McCain has vast experience in this area and, accordingly, knows what he’s talking about.
Oh, wait . . .
Romney agrees as does Bob Dull.
Pray America wakes
Just think, this moron could have been president.
Same with Mitt.
I am assured by the RINO apologists that having idiotic liberal leadership with an “R” label would have been better.
Because miraculously, the same Republican majority that can’t find the stones to oppose Obama would apparently somehow have the courage to oppose libtardness from McCain or Romney...
Because if there’s anyone who knows about winning the White House, it’s John McCain.
Idiot.
First of all, what about the FACT that many voters will simply stay home if such a bill is PASSED?
Second, what about all of the Latinos who are already here - legally, I might add - who face direct job competition from hordes (yes, I used that word) of illegals flooding over the border? They won’t be Dem voters...not unless there is effectively no difference between the D’s and R’s, which is what this policy would prove is the case.
Third, there are a lot of blacks who feel exactly the same as the legal Latinos - i.e. they don’t want more competition to come into the country, as they are having a hard enough time with things as they are.
Fourth, a lot of the union voters are beginning to realize the same thing as the Latinos and blacks.
These facts are what Trump is tapping into, and what will carry him to victory. This is the recreation of the Reagan Democrats. Pass an immigration bill that Fauxbama is willing to sign, and you can kiss that coalition and any hope of victory good-bye.
McCain should retire, while he still has at least 10% of his dignity. He’s lost the rest.
McCain is trying to line up, pandering to, the Hispanic voting bloc in Arizona for his run next year.
I agree that we need immediate immigration action.
We need to act to enforce our borders and deport all of the illegal aliens.
Yes, because McLame is clearly an authority on what it takes to win a presidential election....
What I see here, these old guys like Reid, Hatch, Mclame, they think because they have ‘nested’ in Washington D.C. for so long, they are important....and as time goes on, they really get stupid...their slow moving, boring, dull, uninformed of what is going on in America, they rattle around the halls of Congress, they go to bars and drink and get laid by expensive madams and charge it all on our dime...never once thinking that there could be someone starving or in pain that could use that money...
Ask Spitzer how much a madam costs....he found out really fast, and I'm sure there are more than haven't been caught yet...
So Mclame unless you want ‘things’ to come out about your ‘habits’ then maybe you had best just go back to Arizona and shut up....
Whites are still 70 PERCENT of the voting public. Clear out the illegals and whites will remain at least 60% of the voting public FOR DECADES.
In Texas and throughout the south, in 2014, (legal) HISPANICS voted over 40% Republican, despite Republicans not having an “amnesty plan”. Whites, in the south, also voted over 75% Republican.
It doesn’t take a math genius to realize that putting together the above numbers makes Republicans UNSTOPPABLE...providing the have the gonads to FIGHT FOR THE WHITE VOTE. Trump is doing just that, and his numbers are showing the results.
Or Arlington.
"John, please return to the activites room at 'Happy Acres'.
BINGO begins at Noon." 
Shut. Up. McCain.
McCain is a moron.
There is ZERO logic behind this line. Immigration reform is way low on the priority list, and passing it doesn’t change a damn thing. If anything, it hurts republicans in the short term, because regardless of the bill’s contents, the Republicans are going to get obliterated in the process, called racists, xenophobes, nationalists, etc. Never mind the long term impact on the destruction of the country.
He faces a tough primary, and this time he won’t be able to pretend to be a conservative.
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