Monday Open Thread [8.11.14]

So President Obama will take some kind of executive action pursuant to both his executive authority and laws already passed by Congress to address the immigration problem later this summer. Whatever he does, it will be the basis for impeachment proceedings this fall. Greg Sargent, in one of his latest columns, talked to experts about the limits of executive power. One of those experts was attorney David Leopold, who was the “former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and immigration reform advocate who has consulted with the White House on immigration law”:

Though many argue that [deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA)] grants its beneficiaries work status, in fact, the regulation that grants work status to undocumented immigrants who have been granted deferred action predates DACA and applies to many other categories of people granted deferred action. The federal regulations governing employment under immigration law existed well before DACA. Under those regulations, any undocumented immigrant granted deferred action — under programs that preceded DACA or coincide with it — had already been able to apply for employment authorization. It requires them to demonstrate economic necessity. That applied to anyone granted deferred action either individually or categorically.

Therefore, DACA did not create this authorization to work — and nor would its expansion. It simply created a new category extending an already existing work authorization for beneficiaries of deferred action. The president’s authority to grant work status long precedes DACA, and while it does apply to DACA and would apply to its expansion, it is not a direct outgrowth or creation of either.

In other words, the President has authority to do what he is rumored to do, not that facts ever mattered to Republicans.

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall points one of the main reasons I no longer have sympathy for the state of Israel:

…Netanyahu has made the de facto alliance between the Likud [and] the US Republican party increasingly explicit. And that’s dangerous. Dangerous for all concerned but particularly for Israel. I wish Netanyahu and his government had a better sense of the toxic repercussions of mobilizing GOP proxies as cut-outs in this way. It should go without saying that the Israel-US alliance becomes more brittle as it becomes more clearly identified with a single US political party. And perhaps more than that, as it becomes more clearly identified with the ties between Netanyahu and US Republicans.

Now, the saving grace for Israel here is that it is likely that the next US President will be Hillary Clinton, with whom Netanyahu has a good relationship. But if we continue on this path, eventually, aid to Israel will become a political football in a partisan war. I already support ending all aid to all parties in the conflict, and more and more Democrats may start to come around to this position the more closely Netanyahu hugs Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin.

And now some polling goodness:

NORTH CAROLINA–SENATOR–Civitas: Sen. Kay Hagan (D) 41, Thom Tillis (R) 39, Sean Haugh (L) 7.

NEW YORK–GOVERNOR–Marist: Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) 54, Rob Astorino (R) 23.

ARKANSAS–SENATOR–Public Policy Polling: Rep. Tom Cotton (R) 41, Sen. Mark Pryor (D) 39.

PENNSYLVANIA–GOVERNOR–Magellan Strategies (R): Tom Wolf (D) 50, Gov. Tom Corbett (R) 38.

ALASKA–SENATOR–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Public Policy Polling: Dan Sullivan (R) 35, Mead Treadwell (R) 29, Joe Miller (R) 20.

ALASKA–SENATOR–Public Policy Polling: Sen. Mark Begich (D) 43, Sullivan (R) 37; Begich (D) 42, Treadwell (R) 37; Begich (D) 45, Miller (R) 32.

NEW JERSEY--SENATOR–Quinnipiac: Sen. Cory Booker (D) 47, Jeff Bell (R) 37.

FLORIDA–GOVERNOR–Survey USA: Gov. Rick Scott (R) 45, Charlie Crist (D) 43.

MICHIGAN–GOVERNOR–MRG: Gov. Rick Snyder (R) 45, Mark Schauer (D) 44.

MICHIGAN–SENATOR–MRG: Gary Peters (D) 47, Terry Lynn Land (R) 40.

OREGON–SENATOR–SurveyUSA: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) 52, Monica Wehby (R) 33.

OREGON–GOVERNOR–SurveyUSA: Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) 48, Dennis Richardson (R) 36.

ILLINOIS–GOVERNOR–We Ask America: Bruce Rauner (R) 51, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) 38.