Discussion for article #226135
Interesting stuff. It also amazes me how often the same 2-3 “experts” are the go to for quotes ala Larry Sabato or Chuck Cook. In this case, Jonathan Turley has become the go-to conservative law critic of Dem Presidents, starting with Clinton, and his take is predictably negative. Is it that the journalists are too lazy to find some other source among the 1000s of constitutional law professors? Or is that there are precious few who agree with Turley, he lives in DC and is easy to access for juicy quotes?
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The Pres is daring Congress to impeach him! And he’s trying to do the right thing while he tweaks them.
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The Republicans are going to impeach President Obama in the House regardless of what he does. They simply can’t resist the pomp and self-righteousness, the endless air of CSPAN, and the easy appeasement of their base. Therefore, he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. It might be most delightfully outrageous to issue a humongous raft of Presidential pardons (totally within the Constitution) to solve the present immigration dilemma.
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The analysis in this article presupposes that the Supreme Court will defer to its own precedents, which is no longer a safe bet.
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Sort of like their big Benghazi parade that has apparently ended in a total fizzle? Not that the mainstream media is even beginning to report that. But two high ranking members of the committee have said they have found bupkis.
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Off topic, but is Roberts beaming at his boyfriend in the gallery?
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Can President Barack Obama temporarily legalize 5 million undocumented immigrants by himself?
That depends. What day is today? Is today “Obama is an evil dictator and mastermind who pulls the strings on all worldwide events” day? Or is today “Obama is inept and incompetent” day?
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To really make conservative heads explode, gay people should marry illegal immigrants, conferring them permanent legal status, then they can divorce. Problem solved as the entire Fright-Wing™ commits seppuku.
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Exactly. Let them choke on 11 million POTUS pardons en masse, (there is zero Constitutional limits on POTUS pardon powers).
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I think Obama would be wise not to do anything regarding illegal immigrants until after the election. I also think the general public would be more agreeable to any action if it gives legal status to far fewer people than is suggested in this article. Only people who have actually shown an interest in “being” an American such as those who have been filing taxes for a number of years using a tax identification number (TIN) or those who have served honorably in our military for a minimum of at least two years.
They, their spouse and any minor children would be able to stay. As long as they apply to become citizens and follow through.
coltrane
“Is it that the journalists are too lazy to find some other source among the 1000s of constitutional law professors?”
Of course your question is rhetorical. The answer is a resounding yes.
It’s worse than just laziness. They want pat responses from the usual suspects – responses that reduce complex issues to a few clichés with which everyone is comfortable. It also plays nicely with false equivalencies.
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But that stuff only applies to real presidents!
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By all means, yes.
Look at the author of this piece. If you have been reading his columns here on TPM for awhile, that will answer all your questions.
If you haven’t, this is pretty typical of a Sahil piece. Present a broad, overarching question that can only be answered by suppositions and then talk to his right wing buddies and get their ideas, and write it up. Ca-ching and the turkey flies on Friday again.
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Two things to consider -
First, if he does something like this at say, the end of August, it forces the right wing nut jobs to explode into their full bigoted demagoguery on the issue…works good for their base, disastrous for response from everyone else, resulting in energizing the Hispanic vote for us ahead of the election.
Second, do this before the elections and the howls for impeachment get even louder, creating exactly the same dynamic, but energizing rest of our base as well, particularly blacks.
Meanwhile in both cases,republicans are only playing to a rather small base that we are all constantly told is always energized to get out and vote. Unfortunately for them, when you do vote, there isn’t a button you get to push that says “I am really, really for or against this candidate so count my vote twice.”
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LOL! Still one of the very best episodes of WKRP ever. 
But please tell me I am not the only one that remembers what that particular slang phrase means.
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Boy…and can you imagine what that would do for his legacy…particularly with Hispanics?
I love the notion
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“The suggestion that the president may alter the status of millions of undocumented individuals would magnify those concerns. … What President Obama is contemplating is quite different in magnitude from prior actions.”
Notice how Turley doesn’t answer the question whether the president has the power to do this, or not. Yeah, it “magnifies concerns”, and "is quite different in magnitude, i.e., it affects more people, but neither concern gets to whether he has the authority to do it or not. That’s why Turley’s influence is sinking like a stone everywhere but in Darrell Isa’s committee.
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