An already hot summer could get even hotter, if the Associated Press story from yesterday is correct. If Obama wants to push Tea Partiers and others to the boiling point, this will do it.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is enlisting activists and labor leaders in a push for comprehensive immigration legislation that will showcase Republican opposition and include a speech by the president.
The strategy was discussed during a meeting Monday by a range of prominent labor leaders and activist groups. Participants said Obama reiterated his support for immigration legislation but noted the political realities that have stalled it in Congress.
Latino leaders say they will work in coming months to pressure Republicans to give way and support an immigration bill — and make opponents pay at the ballot box if they don’t.
“We’re going to make absolutely crystal clear who’s at fault here,” said Eliseo Medina, a leader of the Service Employees International Union.
Prospects for passage of comprehensive immigration legislation look bleak this election year, and even many Democrats are wary of wading into the hot-button issue. But Obama, who pledged as a candidate to make immigration reform a top priority during his first year in office, faces pressure from the Hispanic community to act — or at least to try.
Read it all.
Of course you gotta wonder how much of this is Obama pandering to his base and stringing them along until November. Remember its been almost a year since that August White House strategy session where Obama was stringing along a whole bunch of pro-OPEN BORDERS businesses, unions, churches, refugee contractors and so forth, here.