Afraid Democrats Will Show Up At The Polls, Boehner Hasn’t Filed Lawsuit Against Obama Yet

Remember that lawsuit that was supposed to stop President Obama from using executive orders? The GOP thinks it will motivate Democrats to go to the polls.

To quell his base earlier this year, John Boehner promised his base he would file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama. At one point, the Speaker of the House in a press conference even admitted he had no idea on what grounds the lawsuit would be filed, telling a reporter, “When I make that decision, I’ll let you know.”

Boehner finally Made that decision, and the lawsuit was supposed to sue the President for his use of executive orders, despite that fact that, just like taking vacations, all Obama’s predecessors have done a lot more of it than he has.

But now, Politico reports that Republicans are “worried it could rile up the Democratic base.”

It takes about 10 minutes to walk from the Capitol to the federal courthouse just down the hill, but House Republicans haven’t managed to make that trip in the four months since they announced they’d be suing the president.

The suit, charging that the president grossly exceeded his constitutional authority by failing to implement portions of the Obamacare law, was billed as an election-season rallying point for aggrieved Republicans. But days before the midterms, the House’s legal guns seem to have fallen silent.

Lawyers close to the process said they originally expected the legal challenge to be filed in September, but now they don’t expect any action before the elections.

Some attribute the delay to electoral politics — suggesting that Republicans were worried it could rile up the Democratic base — though the GOP is mum on why the suit has yet to be filed.

Politico adds that Democrats see right through this.

“I thought this was a constitutional crisis and the republic was in jeopardy because Obama overstepped his bounds. Now, they can’t even get around to filing it?” asked former House Counsel Stan Brand, a Democrat.

Some Democrats suspect the filing has been delayed because Boehner’s announcement of the suit over the summer backfired to some extent, spurring fundraising by Democratic committees. Raising the issue again so close to the election could agitate those in the president’s base who view such a lawsuit as disrespectful and part of an effort to delegitimize Obama.

And Democratic consultant David DiMartino said it could push an even wider swath of the country away from the GOP.

“I think it goes beyond the Democratic base in terms of the Americans who thought this was beyond the pale,” he argued. Republican leaders “are really good at finding really efficient ways to alienate huge swaths of the American public, and this is one of those issues.”

 

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr