ANALYSIS/OPINION:

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Call it the mysterious case of the Incredible Shrinking GOP.

Barely one month ago, the party sailed to victory in one of the biggest rout election waves of the past century. They ran the board and took control of the U.S. Senate. They grew to historic levels in the U.S. House. The Democratic Party was left in tatters in state, local and governor races across the country.

But today, just a few weeks later, before GOPers even take hold of their new reins of power, the party is crying poverty. They are stricken with paralysis. House Speaker John A. Boehner, known for his weeping, begs powerlessness.

“Frankly, we have limited options and limited abilities to deal with it directly,” Mr. Boehner said last week when asked about President Obama’s unconstitutional executive action to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens presently living illegally in the U.S.

“Limited options?” “Limited abilities?” We have an unbridled madman in the White House right now taking a machete to the U.S. Constitution and the leader of the opposition party that was just thrust to power in a historic rejection of the president and his cleptocratic policies is now talking about “limited” options and abilities?

Funny, I don’t recall a single Republican running in a single race this year on a campaign that Republicans in Congress have only “limited” options and abilities to stop Mr. Obama. No, in fact, every single one of them ran their entire campaigns on the singular promise that we have to vote for Republicans so they could stop Mr. Obama. And Americans voted.

Now the chads have not even settled yet and already we are being told the whole meaning of the election is something different now. Now that they have won.

Either Republicans did not really believe their campaign promises, they were lying or they are just scared to keep those promises to stand up to Mr. Obama and do everything in their power to stop him.

Or maybe Republicans are now listening that elusive “two-thirds of voters” that Mr. Obama claims are telling him what to do.

In their cowering timidity, Republicans wring their hands in fear over the great danger of defunding Mr. Obama’s insane executive amnesty election racket. If they approve a budget that defunds amnesty, their small thinking goes, Mr. Obama will veto the spending bill, thereby shutting the government down. Then, somehow, Republicans will get blamed for shutting down the government.

I mean, seriously? What kind of traumatized headcase thinking is this? Republicans are afraid that if the president issues his first veto over a significant bill that funds the entire government except for his lawless amnesty, somehow it will be Republicans’ fault that the federal government shuts down?

You really don’t have to be a political genius or a pollster to see the lunacy here. Unless you have been asleep for the last few months, you know that Mr. Obama has completely lost his voice. Nobody is listening to him anymore. The people have taken his hollow Greek columns away from him. He has lost his bully pulpit. They no longer trust him. Even black leaders and figures in the media — his most die-hard foot soldiers — are turning against him now.

Anyway, so what if the president does succeed at pinning blame for a government shutdown on Republicans. Ye gads! Republicans, start carving your tomb stones!

Remember the last government shutdown when Republicans got totally blamed. They got blamed so bad even they no longer tried claiming it wasn’t their fault. They were running around like a bunch of screaming weenies just heaping blame upon themselves and apologizing for the reckless, dastardly and unnecessary shutdown of the federal government.

And my goodness, look at the drubbing they suffered in the very next election! Oh wait! That was just last month! When they seized control of the Senate, reached historic levels in the House and annihilated Democrats coast-to-coast!

No, Republicans, you were elected to be brave and fight to end the insanity. You were elected to take control of this most dire situation.

Voters handed you more power than they have trusted you with in nearly a decade. Now is the time to use that power with wisdom and vision and principle.

If not now, when? If not right after winning a landslide election, when?

⦁ Charles Hurt can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @charleshurt.com.

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