Ryan, Jindal Make the Pitch for a GOP Proposal on Immigration Reform

Today on NRO

ELIANA JOHNSON: Did flashy reporting go too far when it stirred up hysteria over a common beef product? ABC's Slime-Time News.

PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY: Limit immigration or watch conservative efforts become irrelevant. The Liberal Newcomers.

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: Disrespect for earned success might not end in cannibalism, but it will make the U.S. poorer. Soylent Green Is Made Out of . . . the 1 Percent?

WILLIAM TUCKER: In theory and in practice, it's what keeps a society stable. Monogamy Made Us Human.

ALEC TORRES: Never heard of microagression? You may be guilty of it. Microaggression.

BETSY WOODRUFF: A reality show that makes no excuses. #RichKids of Beverly Hills.

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

February 3, 2014

Tough Night, Colorado. Tough Night

Cue a million Colorado-legalizes-marijuana-and-the-Denver-Broncos-lose-the-Super-Bowl-in-a-rout jokes.

Everybody's telling those jokes this morning. You know what they're not telling you?

A guy named Harry Hempy is running for governor of Colorado this year. As a member of the Green party.

So how many votes does he get just for the "Dude, I'm voting for Hemp-y!" factor?

The incumbent is Democrat John Hickenlooper.

The crowded Republican field includes state Senator Greg Brophy, Secretary of State Scott E. Gessler, Steve House, former state senator Mike Kopp, Jim Rundberg, and former congressman Tom Tancredo.

Here's what PPP found at the end of 2013 -- feel free to take these results with enough salt to melt any snow on the ground in your area -- but the general sense that Hickenlooper and Udall are vulnerable Democratic incumbents in a purple state (up against the right GOP opponent) seems accurate:

Voters are pretty split in their opinions about Hickenlooper with 45% approving of him to 48% who disapprove. But in a head to head match up with Tancredo he still leads by 8 points at 48/40. He has similar margins against Mike Kopp (45/37) and Scott Gessler (47/40). The Republican who comes closest, despite having minimal name recognition, is actually Greg Brophy at 44/43.

We're seeing a similar story in the Colorado Senate race. Ken Buck proved to be a very poor candidate against Michael Bennet in 2010 and lost a contest Republicans were generally expected to win all year long. And now GOP voters are ready to run him again -- 45% say he's their choice for Senate candidate to just 8% for Randy Baumgardner, 7% for Amy Stephens, and 2% or less for the others.

Voters have mixed feelings about Mark Udall -- 40% approve of him and 41% disapprove. But thanks to the weak field opposing him he still leads by anywhere from 4 to 7 points against his potential Republican foes. It's 46/42 over Buck, 47/40 over Baumgardner, and 44/37 over both Hill and Stephens.

Well, it's not like the governor tried to tie himself to the Broncos in their suddenly-interrupted magical year . . .

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is taking Super Bowl hoopla to new heights.

He announced Wednesday he's temporarily renaming Colorado's highest mountains for each member of the Denver Broncos. The state is home to more than 50 mountains over 14,000 feet, called "14-ers" by locals.

Finally, your tax dollars at work, Coloradans: "Two high-profile fans will be in the crowd watching the Super Bowl this Sunday -- Gov. John Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, The Denver Post reports. Hickenlooper is paying for the trip east with his son, Teddy, while two staffers [his chief of staff and senior media adviser will have their airfare covered by the state."

Ryan, Jindal Make the Pitch for a GOP Proposal on Immigration Reform

Presume that Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has at least some interest in running for president in 2016. Presume that he's pretty well-positioned as one of the more rightward members of the field. Staking out a "no deal, no way" position on immigration reform would be the easy move, although it would alienate some corners of the business community. Instead, Jindal's positioning himself like this:

Some members of the Republican party, Bobby Jindal said this morning, believe the party should hold off on immigration reform and focus on President Obama's low approval rating and the Affordable Care Act's troubles to carry them through the 2014 elections. That doesn't include the Louisiana governor, who said that he believes in a "high walls and a broad gate" approach to immigration policy, with border security and enforcement coming before amnesty for people in the U.S. illegally today. He believes the GOP presents a set of reforms along those lines, with requirements that border-state governors verify that the border is secure before the legalization process is complete.

There is a very vocal swath of Republicans in the grassroots who want no deal on immigration as long as Obama's president -- if for no other reason than the fact that they think Obama will enforce the parts of the law that he likes (path to citizenship/amnesty) and ignore the provisions he doesn't like -- such as deporting any potential future registered Democrat.

Paul Ryan says the House GOP recognizes this and the bill they're preparing is supposed to address this:

Paul Ryan recognizes that House Republicans are concerned about passing an immigration reform that President Obama would be tasked with implementing, but he believes the GOP plans will be able to address those worries.

"Here's the issue that all Republicans agree on: We don't trust the president to enforce the law," the House Budget Committee chairman said on ABC's This Week. "So if you actually look at the standards Republican leadership put out, which is, security first — first, we have to secure the border and [get] interior enforcement. . . . Those things have to be in law, in practice, and independently verified before the rest of the law can occur. So it's a security-first, non-amnesty approach."

Representative Ryan also promised that the House wouldn't go to conference with the Senate on the Gang of Eight bill the upper house passed last week, noting that there is no timeline on which the bodies have to agree on a bill.

Lesson for future presidents, Republican and Democrat: When the opposition doesn't entrust you to enforce the laws you sign, it's almost impossible to get anything done.

Barack Obama, Gridiron Great

Speaking of football, I've perused the White House official Flickr feed, and found that they play a lot of football in that building. I mean, a lot.

Maybe they cancelled all those "how Healthcare.gov is progressing" meetings to toss the ball around.

ADDENDA: "Bankrupt: How Cronyism and Corruption Brought Down Detroit" -- Ben Howe's new documentary about how big corporations, big government, and big unions drove the long, slow, painful decline of the Motor City -- is now online.

Cheer up, Denver fans. At least you're not PETA.

Jim Hoft:

Joe Namath turned a few heads tonight at the Super Bowl in his trademark fur coat.

Even worse, PETA . . . Joe Namath didn't just predict your futile outrage. He guaranteed it.

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