The growing scandals enveloping the Obama administration are becoming a series of shiny baubles being dangled before the right and the left alike. The right wants to impeach Obama, while the left, of course, wants to blindly defend him. Meanwhile, the American people are being sold a bill of goods that this is a partisan fight and that partisanship is a danger to the Republic. The truth is, the real danger lies in so-called bipartisanship.
Rick McKee / Augusta Chronicle (click to view more cartoons by McKee)
While the investigations surrounding Benghazi, the IRS and the Justice Department’s ham-handed intimidation of reporters — especially at Fox News — continue to suck all the oxygen out of the air in Washington, another threat looms: immigration reform. Armed with the misguided support of otherwise conservative Members of Congress like Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake and Paul Ryan, as well as the usual suspects like John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Orrin Hatch (with RINOS like these, who needs Democrats?) Senate Dems like Chuck Schumer are steadily pushing through a scheme to ensure that their party gains a permanent majority — everywhere.
After five days of debate over dozens of amendments, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 5 in support of a sweeping immigration bill that promises to further cripple the economy of the United States. The legislation would legitimize and make legal 12 to 20 million illegal aliens. Adios, Texas. So long, Florida. Sayonara, Arizona. Goodbye, Virginia. With California already falling into the ocean, politically speaking, unless the U.S. House of Representatives can prevail and save us from this insanity, the GOP will never see another national victory in this century.
For some time, the argument in favor of Republican support of so-called comprehensive immigration reform (read: amnesty) has been that Hispanics, who comprise the largest portion of illegals, are hard-working, pro-life, pro-family conservatives, and that as such they are a natural constituency for the Republican Party. Sounds great, and those attributes do, indeed, apply to many of them. But like most human beings, they also like free goodies, and no entity on the planet loves to hand out free goodies like the Democratic Party.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, of the People’s Socialist Republic of Vermont, understands this all too well. “The dysfunction in our current immigration system affects all of us,” said Leahy, chairman of the committee. “It is long past time for reform. I hope that our history, our values, and our decency can inspire us finally to take action. We need an immigration system that lives up to American values and helps write the next great chapter in American history by reinvigorating our economy and enriching our communities.”
After the committee vote, President Obama issued a statement praising its members for approving a bill he characterized as “largely consistent” with the principles he had outlined.
“None of the committee members got everything they wanted,” said Obama, “and neither did I. But in the end, we all owe it to the American people to get the best possible result over the finish line.”
If you believe that, then I have a bridge in Schumer’s New York and some swamp land in Rubio’s native Florida to sell you. Whenever Barack Obama praises anything either house of the congress has done, you can be fairly sure it will not be good for the country.
In the make-believe place called Liberalville (also known as Progressivetown), where people like Patrick Leahy and Barack Obama live — where money grows on trees, abortions make America a better place, same-sex marriage strengthens our moral fiber, and everyone in the world, especially Muslim extremists, can be persuaded to love everyone else — the next great chapter in American history will be written by people who cannot even be bothered to learn our language.
© 2013 by Doug Patton – Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself more often than not. His weekly columns are distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For more info contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com. Readers are encouraged to email him at dpatton@cagle.com and/or to follow him on Twitter at @Doug_Patton.
