Last Tuesday, when John Boehner used the big speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as cover for his surrender on fully funding the Department Homeland Security it was all but over. With the crushing loss to Emperor Barack Obama over his amnesty for illegals decree having squandered all momentum from the November elections it is time to call in the dogs and piss on the fire. The 2016 campaign season is getting revved up and outside of a few easily marginalized conservatives the rest of the GOP is moving on. Score a huge win for Obama, the latest in a series over Boehner and his hapless Senate counterpart Mitch McConnell.

Politico, the Inside Baseball of the D.C. Beltway is reporting that “Immigration reform looks dead in this Congress”:

Singed by their defeat in the battle over Homeland Security funding, Republicans aren’t about to renew their fight against President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration anytime soon.

When the GOP-controlled Senate bent to Democratic demands to fund the Department of Homeland Security, effectively undercutting conservatives who were willing to allow the agency to shut down until Obama backed down, there was talk of Senate GOP leaders returning to the immigration issue to find new ways to thwart Obama’s orders.

But few within the GOP expect any kind of immigration debate in the Senate in the foreseeable future. The issue has been relegated to the back burner as Republicans instead focus on the budget, trade deals and, possibly, tax reform.

“At this point, we have a lot of other issues to do,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who authored stand-alone legislation to block Obama’s immigration directives. “I’m very happy the Department of Homeland Security is funded, and I think the issue of the president’s overreach with his executive order of last November is probably going to end up being decided by the courts. And that’s not a bad option.”

So having punted the ball to the courts – a pretty lame and half-assed excuse – the career politicians can get about doing that which they do best: fibbing, fundraising and campaigning. The time for challenging Obama’s executive order was back in December when the Republicans had leverage. The minute that DHS funding was split out it was a done deal no matter how many sound bites that Boenher kept spewing. It is not very likely that a congressional challenge to amnesty is going to occur anytime soon – if at all – with the Republicans badly in need of pulling at least some of the Hispanic vote.

The Politico piece has some Republicans hedging, for example Mitch McConnell, he of the turtle visage and forked tongue:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) left himself the option of bringing back the measure to stymie Obama’s directives. And GOP leaders, wary of criticism from conservatives who are girding for combat over immigration, won’t close the door entirely on revisiting it.

“I think you’ll see it in some form again, sooner or later. I just don’t know when,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas. “We’ve got a lot of important stuff to do.”

Practically speaking, if Republicans were to go there, Democrats would try to force vulnerable GOP senators to take tough votes on politically charged immigration amendments and eat up valuable Senate floor time. At the same time, conservatives aren’t prepared to let McConnell and his lieutenants off the ok.

Immigration reform, the politically correct term for flooding the country with social services draining, anchor baby dropping, wage depressing, American job taking illegal aliens is finished. Obama and the Democrats are now making their pivot towards racial and identity group politics as was made evident when Barry led the way during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the march on Selma over the weekend. It is going to be critical for any Republican presidential candidate with national aspirations to avoid any debate over Obama’s amnesty or be mauled by the corrupt media as a racist. That Jeb Bush nomination is closer this morning than ever and despite his temperament and flip flopping, Marco Rubio makes a nice token Hispanic in the V.P. spot.

November 4, 2014 now seems like it was only an illusion.