As President Obama mounts a new effort to simultaneously push two major domestic policy initiatives — immigration reform and energy legislation — that seem politically impossible before the fall elections, one Republican has a bit of advice: Go small.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Tuesday that Obama should do a “smaller version” of the energy measure that he worked on with Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA) and return to the issue next year. (Graham bailed on that working group in April.) As for immigration, Graham thinks securing the border first is the only option for beginning a productive debate, and suggested that a post-election measure doing that will set up Congress to consider a comprehensive bill with a pathway to citizenship next year.
Graham said that Democrats and Obama can’t do anything to bring him back into the fold on either issue until after the elections, adding that it’s “foolish” to try for comprehensive plans on either issue.
Obama made big promises today, working with members of Congress to repeat what he’s said for months: that a broad climate/energy measure is necessary. But Graham is doubtful: “I don’t think any serious observer thinks that this Congress is going to enact comprehensive energy and climate policy and immigration between now and November.”
Graham added that if Obama tries to pass a cap and trade system without GOP support, that would lead to “failure for decades.”
“They’re not doing a good service to both issues, and both issues are important,” Graham told reporters when asked about the president’s dual efforts by TPMDC. “If you bring comprehensive immigration reform to the floor in this environment it will fail. It will fail miserably, and nobody will touch it for a decade and what you see in Arizona is going to happen throughout the country.”
Graham said of Republicans on immigration policy, “If my party doesn’t embrace the idea that the federal government should do something … then we are in trouble for a long time to come with the Hispanic community,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that, in his planned speech on immigration Thursday, Obama will (again) call for bipartisanship. “[O]ne party alone cannot solve this problem. Only with Republican support can — and that Republican support has certainly been there in the past — only with Republican support can we move forward on immigration,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs said Obama feels the same way about the energy bill.
“There’s clearly not the will nor the time to do that,” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) told reporters today. “I don’t know why he’s doing it.”
Graham thinks he knows why Obama is doing that — he suggested that he thinks Obama is trying to throw some bones to the Democratic political base to energize Latino and environmental-issue voters before the elections. That’s quite possible, since both groups have been openly frustrated with little progress on their issues despite promises that they, too, would be priority No. 1.
But Graham’s complaints are not new. He’s been ragging on Obama since he pulled out of the climate bill in April. It’s hardly surprising a Republican wouldn’t have a favorable take on the president’s agenda, but Graham isn’t always that kind of Republican. Obama has repeatedly mentioned Graham’s work on the two supposedly bipartisan ideas, which makes Graham’s insistence that he won’t help on either issue until after the elections a particularly bitter pill to swallow.
