I Walked With a Zombie! It sure looks like Speaker Boehner had a Bad Date with Amnesty on Thursday, according to Jonathan Strong’s reporting at Breitbart. (“[T]he dozens of GOP lawmakers who spoke were at least 80-20 against bringing a bill to the floor this year.”) But the WSJ is buying the claim of the GOP leadership and its aides that the immigration “principles” were “largely accepted.” … Do not disrupt the planned narrative! .. .
Meanwhile, Politico‘s Mike Allen is writing press releases for Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us. … Hope you get the ads, Mike! … Zuckerberg’s fake conservative front group, “Americans for a Conservative Direction,” says it has launched a $750,000 campaign to make it look like the House leadership’s legalization push is really tough, tough, tough. The Zuckerberg video implies, falsely, that the gist of the Boehner proposal is to legalize only “DREAMers” (“a chance at the American dream for those brought here as children”) as opposed to all the 11 million undocumented immigrants.** …
National Review ‘s Eliana Johnson reports that mainstream GOP congressperson’s are mocking the GOP leadership legalization proposals in private emails. “[T]hese aren’t guys like Steve King but guys like (Raul) Labrador and (Tom) Cotton and (Mick) Mulvaney.” …
Ex-Sen Phil Gramm has come out strongly against moving a legalization bill at a Texas forum. …
And add Ramesh Ponnuru to the list of those who think Boehner’s legalization effort is mad. That list includes William Kristol, John Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Reihan Salam … Update: Ross Douthat …
Breitbart‘s J. Strong likens amnesty to a zombie, in that it will never be completely killed–too many powerful interest groups, including the media, are pushing it. But there’s a way to neutralize it and even turn it into a productive citizen! Ponnuru sketches one positive proposal. Mark Krikorian has another. And here is my plan for making the amnesty zombie go away. Just don’t call it “comprehensive.” …
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** — Allen declares that “reform is looking more likely than it did a week ago,” which I doubt is true, given Thursday’s contentious GOP meeting. Allen bases his conclusion on President Obama’s apparent receptiveness to the Boehner ‘legalization-but-not-necessarily-citizenship’ plan–as if there was ever any question that Obama would sign a legalization bill in an instant, and then break out the champagne to celebrate with amnesty champions Frank Sharry and Luis Gutierrez. (At least Gutierrez is relatively honest in not pretending he wouldn’t regard a legalization-only bill as a win.)