One good thing about having wild-ass shrieking all-caps wingnut sites like Breitbart around is that it keeps the rest of us apprised of what Republican pols are telling these people when they visit their fever swamps. And so we are informed that RNC Chairman Reince “Rebranding” Priebus is getting in touch with his inner Steve King in promising a definitive confrontation with the president over any prospective executive DACA expansion:
“It’s unconstitutional, illegal, and we don’t support it,” Priebus replied when a Tea Party activist asked him about the president’s plans for an executive amnesty on a conference call hosted by TheTeaParty.net on Monday evening.
“I don’t support it. It is wrong,” Priebus said. “It is un-American for a president to try and do such a thing. I want to make it clear: There is no part of me, there is not a molecule in my body that agrees with the president on executive amnesty.”
Priebus promised the hundreds of activists on the call that the Republican Party, if it takes the Senate on Nov. 4 in the upcoming midterm elections, will do everything in its power to stop Obama from proceeding on the executive amnesty. Priebus even boldly predicted that Republicans can and will succeed in stopping Obama if elected on Nov. 4.
“While I can’t speak for the legislature, I’m very confident we will stop that,” Priebus said. “We will do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen: Defunding, going to court, injunction. You name it. It’s wrong. It’s illegal. And for so many reasons, and just the basic fabric of this country, we can’t allow it to happen and we won’t let it happen. I don’t know how to be any stronger than that. I’m telling you, everything we can do to stop it we will.”
You may recall that Ted Cruz, among others, have walked right up to the line where the next step would logically be calling for a government shutdown over DACA, only to indignantly deny any such intention. But this sort of “by any means necessary” talk does not suggest to the people Priebus is addressing that the RNC will file a lawsuit, make some noise, and leave it at that. And the question remains, as always, whether the GOP can (or even wants to) restrain the furies their rhetoric conjures up.
