The Republican leadership is outraged by the reprehensible behavior of the Obama Administration in the Benghazi cover-up, the use of the IRS to go after its political enemies, and the Justice Department’s unwarranted seizure of Associated Press phone records. They have every right to be outraged, but where was this outrage earlier, before the media gave Republicans the green light to express their indignation?
When President Obama usurped Congress’ authority over immigration policy and illegally declared that the DREAM Act would go into effect even though it had failed to pass (a Democratic controlled) Congress, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner said nothing about this abuse of Presidential power. When President Obama brazenly refused to enforce immigration law and ridiculed those who want a secure the border as people who must want a “moat with alligators in it” along the southern border, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner said nothing. As DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano continuously claimed that “record deportations” were taking place in the face of evidence, and the President’s own admission, that such claims were “deceptive,” Mitch McConnell and John Boehner said nothing.
McConnell and Boehner are content to let “gangs” in the Senate and House run the show on immigration reform. Neither has taken a position on one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in the history of the nation. If they are looking to be outraged there is plenty to be upset about in the Gang of Eight bill. Instead, they take their cues from the op-ed pages of The New York Times, demanding answers to questions they should have been asking long before now.
Selective outrage is better than none, but a party, any party, that would defend the Constitution and fight for the interests of the American people would be much better than what we have now.