Despite all the talk about partisan acrimony in Washington, the establishment in both parties is doing a great job working together to pass amnesty.  In fact, their carefully choreographed kabuki theater in the media should win them awards for great team work against the Country Class.

The news out of Washington last week was that Speaker John Boehner got the message loud and clear from rank-and-file members to put the brakes on his push for amnesty.  This spurious media narrative is ridiculous when you consider the strength of the forces behind amnesty.  The entire D.C. establishment has been preparing for this effort for months, backed by a multi-million dollar media campaign.  Every lobby shop in Washington is supporting amnesty.  There is no way they would suddenly agree to cease and desist after a few days of predictable grumbling from conservative House members.

The ‘slow-down’ on immigration is nothing but a carefully orchestrated strategy coordinated with Democrats so that conservatives will ignore the issue.  As the Washington Examiner’s Byron York quoted from a GOP leadership aide, “the best way to pass a bill is to tell people a bill is unlikely to pass.”

This same kabuki theater was orchestrated last year when the Senate passed the Gang of 8 amnesty.  After the bill was first introduced, conservatives carpet bombed the 1,000-page monstrosity on numerous fronts.  The Republican leadership chose to embrace a few of our concerns and promised to address them.  Far from abandoning the bill, they used the lull in action to create the shiny object of “enforcement triggers.”  McConnell and Cornyn pushed the first trial balloon of strengthened triggers.  They were predictably shot down, but gave rise to the final ‘goldilocks’ plan – the Corker-Hoeven amendment – which was sold as a grand compromise to assuage the concerns of conservative critics.  The bill passed with overwhelming support, and the rest is history.

Likewise, this year, House leaders along with their new-found Democrat partners, are outwardly embracing one of our concerns – that there is no trust in Obama enforcing the laws.  Acting like the foxes guarding the henhouse, one Republican after another is echoing the talking point: “you know what?  You guys are right.  We can’t trust the President to uphold his part of the deal.  We need to do something about that.”

Far from being comatose, the amnesty scheme is alive and well, albeit in the rope-a-dope phase.  The bipartisan oligarchy behind open borders is looking to create the shiny object of addressing the lack of trust in the president to prepare for an illusory grand bargain.  We are already starting to see this coordination and some trial balloons being floated in the media.

On Friday, the AP ran a story explaining how the White House is “giving Boehner room on immigration” with the understanding that “the GOP resistance is temporary and tactical.”

“Obama is willing to give Boehner space to operate and to tamp down the conservative outcry that greeted a set of immigration overhaul principles the speaker brought forward last week. For now, the White House is simply standing behind a comprehensive bill that passed in the Senate last year, but is not trying to press Boehner on how to proceed in the Republican-controlled House.”

Then, over the weekend, Chuck Schumer floated the first trial balloon – a plan that would grant immediate amnesty this year but suspend actual implementation until Obama leaves office.  Yes, as if they will really remain in suspended status for three years!

Keep in mind that Politico already reported earlier last week that Schumer had been engaging in private negotiations with Congressman Paul Ryan – even as Boehner was outwardly admitting defeat on the issue.

In the coming days and weeks, watch for some sort of negotiated settlement in which the President will agree to enforce some ancillary immigration law, thereby giving Boehner, McConnell, and Ryan the green light to push amnesty.

Folks, the problem here is not just a lack of trust in Obama.  It is a lack of trust in Republican leadership.  They act as if they are on our side fighting against an untrustworthy Democrat administration, yet they are really collaborating with Obama to bamboozle their own base.

We simply cannot afford to retain the current Speaker for another year if his entire agenda is aimed at fooling conservatives and placating his Democrat buddies.  In addition to defeating these people in primaries, we must get sitting members to publicly state whether they will vote for Boehner in the upcoming leadership elections.  Even if Boehner plans to retire at the end of the year, an immediate vote of no confidence in him would attenuate his ability to undermine the grassroots.

It only takes 17 members committed to opposing Boehner in order to deny him the 218 votes he would need to retain his speakership.

We can either sit back and wait for the next subterfuge from Boehner or we can take the destiny of our party into our own hands.  It is our choice to make.

Cross-posted from Madison Project