Quotes of the day

Mr. Obama said that he was changing the deportation policy because “it’s the right thing to do.” Translation: It’s the politically expedient thing to do in an election year in which Hispanic voters are expected to play a key role in determining whether he wins a second term. Hispanic voter registration is down considerably from 2008 in swing states such as Florida and New Mexico that Mr. Obama is counting on in November. Next week the President is scheduled to address the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. The timing of this announcement is no coincidence. One begins to wonder if anything this President does is about anything larger than his re-election…

It’s passing strange that the President is saying on the stump that the Republicans in Congress refuse to compromise with him at every turn. This issue, whose resolution clearly requires bipartisanship, is screaming for compromise. One vehicle for starting that process is the Dream Act, which would do legislatively what Mr. Obama is doing on his own. And in fact, there had been bipartisan interest of late in a modified version of the Dream Act, particularly from GOP Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. The White House could have worked with Mr. Rubio toward a bipartisan consensus. Instead, Obama aides trashed Senator Rubio’s proposal because they wanted the issue to use against Republicans in the fall.

The reaction on Twitter ranged from shock to cynicism and mockery.

“Can this be authentic? It seems impossible under law,” wrote commentator David Frum, who later added: “Well, if you can’t deliver an economic recovery, ethnic politics must be the fallback plan.”

“We need a national conversation about comprehensive immigration reform. Rubio was working to persuade GOP. Obama just undercut that effort,” wrote Matt Lewis of the Daily Caller.

“What’s that? A sweeping executive order that upends three years’ of immigration policy? Must be election year,” wrote BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins.

“But what about the public option, Obama?” asked Sam Stein of the Huffington Post.

President Obama’s claim that he can refuse to deport 800,000 aliens here in the country illegally illustrates the unprecedented stretching of the Constitution and the rule of law. He is laying claim to presidential power that goes even beyond that claimed by the Bush administration, in which I served. There is a world of difference in refusing to enforce laws that violate the Constitution (Bush) and refusing to enforce laws because of disagreements over policy (Obama)…

Imagine the precedent this claim would create. President Romney could lower tax rates simply by saying he will not use enforcement resources to prosecute anyone who refuses to pay capital-gains tax. He could repeal Obamacare simply by refusing to fine or prosecute anyone who violates it.

So what we have here is a president who is refusing to carry out federal law simply because he disagrees with Congress’s policy choices. That is an exercise of executive power that even the most stalwart defenders of an energetic executive — not to mention the Framers — cannot support.

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King said Friday that he plans to sue the Obama administration to halt implementation of its newly announced selective illegal immigration law enforcement policy. He told Mike Huckabee on the former Arkansas governor’s radio program Friday that he successfully sued his own state’s governor — and won — over a similar separation-of-powers issue.

“I will tell you that — I’m not without experience on this — I’m prepared to bring a suit and seek a court order to stop implementation of this policy,” King said

“I have done it once in the past successfully when then-Governor Tom Vilsack thought he could legislate by executive order — and the case of King vs. Vilsack is in the books. And that individual, by the way, is now the Secretary of Agriculture. I wonder if he’s not counseling the president on his legal proceedings.”

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus reacted to the Obama administration’s immigration announcement today at the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

“Well, he’s made a lot of promises that he hasn’t kept,” Priebus told reporters after his remarks to the conservative confab.

“I think president is all politics, all the time,” he said when asked if he thought the announcement was politically motivated.

Via the Daily Caller.

Via the Daily Rushbo.

• About those “doctored” Benghazi e-mails…
• White House word of the day – Irrelevant
• Is Scandalmania making amnesty more likely?

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