Who this is all really about.
The Republican leadership doth protest too much, methinks. They keep insisting that no matter what President Obama does on immigration and no matter how rightful their outrage, they will definitely not think about impeaching him. The problem here is that all this insistence from the caucus leaders and Sunday talk show favorites that there will be no impeachment often comes in the form of
thinly veiled warnings to their members to stop talking about impeachment:
“Nobody’s talking about the ‘I’ word like the White House and others,” Cornyn said. “They would love for us to take the bait. We’re not going to take the bait.”
(Do you hear me, guys? DON'T TAKE THE BAIT.)
Some of the warnings aren't even thinly veiled:
“Count to 100 before you say anything,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he told conservatives in the House. [...]
“How we behave is about us,” Graham said. “There will be a few who want their 15 minutes of fame by saying impeach him or shut down the government. Most of us appreciate the chance to govern again and will understand a measured response is required.”
(They're totally going to take the bait. But please, reporters, don't pay attention to those guys, come to meeeee for quotes.)
The don't-say-the-"I"-word caucus is united in not wanting to talk about the substance of what's going on. In fact, "I" stands for immigration as much as impeachment here. Republicans, aside from those in such far-right districts that they're confident their constituents will respond well to racism, don't want voters thinking about actual immigration policy, because voters disagree with them on that. They don't want voters thinking about how Congress hasn't done anything on this issue, because it's not like Congress has the popularity to charm people into ignoring its failures. Instead, they need to keep the focus squarely on the president, to keep reminding voters who don't like him that they don't like him and therefore must not like what he's doing. Making this about Obama, not about immigrants facing deportation, is the only viable strategy Republicans have for making Obama's executive action broadly unpopular. But make no mistake: This really is about immigrants facing deportation, and Speaker John Boehner's longstanding refusal to allow a vote on the Senate's bipartisan immigration reform bill.