House Republicans finally find a lawyer for their bogus lawsuit against Obama, a Fox News guest

by Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014 Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014 at 8:41:43am PST

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) (C) pauses between answers to questions during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, October 10, 2013. U.S. House of Representatives Republicans are still weighing a short-term debt-limit increase, pos

Maybe the third lawyer's the charm. House Republicans have hired legal scholar and tv personality Jonathan Turley to represent them in their flagging lawsuit against President Obama over "executive overreach" for doing something they wanted to do—delay the employer mandate in Obamacare. Presumably this had something to do with the hiring.

National Review on Monday flagged comments by Turley on Fox News where he said that if Obama takes executive action on immigration reform it would "tear at the very fabric of the Constitution."

That's the kind of Fox News soundbite the GOP needs to turn this turkey of a lawsuit—which has yet to be filed and two lawyers have already dropped—into the kind of public relations fodder they're looking for. Because in terms of the actual lawyering part, House Democrats have nailed it.

"Even for $500-per-hour in taxpayer dollars, Speaker Boehner has had to scour Washington to find a lawyer willing to file this meritless lawsuit against the president," said Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for Minority Leader Pelosi. "Now, he's hired a TV personality for this latest episode of his distraction and dysfunction."

It's handy, though, because Fox will certainly keep a chair warm for Turley. Never mind the dubious merits of the case.