Dems’ last ditch hope: Force a shutdown to save the Senate

Can Democrats troll their way to survival in the coming midterm elections? It’s whatMarc Ambinder calls “the last, best hope for Democrats” to save the Senate. The plan calls for broad executive action by President Obama to legalize illegal immigrants to goad Republicans into a similar fight as last year’s failed effort to strip funding from ObamaCare. The next shutdown deadline comes on Sept. 30 and if the president drops his executive action on immigration on schedule (“end of the summer”) it would be just in time to chum the water ahead of votes on a short-term budget measure. Ambinder writes: “Go big on immigration. Wait for the GOP counter-reaction. Quietly pray for the government to get shut down. Use it like a cattle prod to wake voters up just before the midterms.”

[Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who says he’s been “listening very carefully” in meetings at the White House hinted to Sean Hannity that he believes “over six million undocumented workers” will be granted amnesty by the president.]

Hitting the sweet spot - The president would need to find a sweet spot in which his allies in big business and his liberal base both like the action, but it doesn’t createfurther uproar among Democratic Senate candidates who are taking increasingly harsh lines against Obama’s vaunted “pen power.” Georgia Senate nomineeMichelle Nunn, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor and Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu have all raised warnings about executive overreach. It’s not surprising. If Obama goes too far, the voter backlash could be intense. Fashioning the kind of action that can please business, activists and red state Democrats is no easy task, especially since Obama will need some legal defense in order to not have a court toss it out before the plan can even get started.

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