The GOP went to bed on Thursday night livid at President Barack Obama’s executive actions that would shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. They warned the president is setting up a “constitutional crisis,” panned his actions as a “direct insult” to Americans and accused him of acting precisely like the “emperor” he has said he is not.

But congressional Republicans woke up on Friday morning with no clear legislative response to the president and with their membership scattered across the country on a 10-day Thanksgiving break. Meanwhile, Obama headed to Las Vegas to begin selling his proposal to shield millions of young immigrants and some of their family members.


The lack of a unified response from the GOP risks further fracturing the party just as Republicans prepare to take over Capitol Hill and attempt to prove themselves a responsible governing majority. And Obama’s nationwide tour pitching his plan threatens to blunt Republicans’ momentum and messaging heading into a long holiday recess, exposing frustrations by both conservatives at a lack of direction on how to respond to Obama’s moves and of party elders who worry the GOP’s right flank will overreact to the immigration action with talk of impeachment and government shutdowns.

Republicans, for now, have offered little other than rhetorical criticisms and a variety of suggestions not yet endorsed by GOP leaders: Block the president’s nominees; take further legal action against the White House; zero out funding to Department of Homeland Security agencies and dare Obama to exercise his veto; or pass step-by-step immigration reform to override Obama’s executive actions.

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But GOP leaders have declined to broadcast any plans as they take the temperature of rank-and-file Republicans, who range in ideology from hardliners agitating for a direct confrontation with Obama to deal-making centrists who fret a harsh GOP overreaction will make it impossible to make bipartisan progress on anything next year.

Though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed that the new GOP majority in his chamber will act in January against the president’s immigration action, both he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are currently subject to the whim of the House. The big question in Washington: Can House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) both placate conservatives on immigration and avoid a shutdown showdown with the president before Republicans even take control of the Senate?

After speaking with the president on Thursday afternoon, Boehner gave little away on Friday morning other than unloading on Obama for “damaging the presidency itself.”

“We’re working with our members and looking at the options that are available to us,” Boehner said. “But I will say to you: The House will in fact act.”

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McConnell was equally vague on Thursday; he is “considering a variety of options.” And in the vacuum of orders from GOP leadership, the variety and divergence of ideas among members are only causing more splits in the party.

“I’m worried that the House hasn’t reached an agreement,” fumed Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading voice urging Republicans to take on Obama through the budget process. “I have been uneasy that they have not reached a clear message and decision about what they are going to do.”

One popular option on the right is to immediately use the “power of the purse” to limit funding for Obama to enact his immigration action, an avenue almost sure to provoke a presidential veto or a stalemate with the Democratically controlled Senate next month.

The House Appropriations Committee is downplaying the effectiveness of this approach, arguing that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency is self-supported by fees from immigration applications — which means Congress can’t “de-fund” this agency through a spending bill.

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But conservatives argue this position amounts to capitulation by Republicans and suggest a creative fix: Attach a legislative rider to a funding bill that limits how the fees can be spent.

“It might require a minor legislative change. I don’t think that’s a real issue. I think that’s taking counsel of your fears rather than boldly representing the voice of the people and the Constitution,” Sessions said.

Then there’s Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican who tried in vain to get the House to act on its own immigration proposal earlier this year. He is urging Republicans to push back against the president “respectfully.”

“We have to try to lower the passion on this issue to get it done. I don’t think it is beneficial for our country,” he said in an interview Thursday night. Obama acted “strictly for political reasons, to try precisely to bait folks to say things that frankly, most of the American people would find objectionable.”

A close Sessions ally, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, has urged Republicans to block confirmation of all nonessential presidential nominees beginning in 2015 when they take over the Senate.

While the GOP is vowing to use its control of the nomination process as a leverage point in negotiations with the president, Republicans are also promising to be responsible stewards of presidential confirmations as they take over Capitol Hill.

“We’ve got a duty to run the government apart from his executive action. And you need people to run the government,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who last year voted to advance some of Obama’s nominees that were controversial within the GOP. “Every agency of government needs to be staffed with the appropriate people. But that is a point of leverage you have.”

A bloc of Republicans in both chambers is also still holding out hope that it can work with the president next year on tax reform, authorizing military force against the Islamic State and fast-tracking new trade deals. But there’s growing angst among these deal-makers that the GOP’s immigration response will stop bipartisan movement in those areas before it even begins.

“If it seeps out onto other things, phooey on us. That would be responding to immaturity with immaturity. It’s absolutely blowing an opportunity to show our ability to govern if that’s the response that we take,” said one GOP lawmaker of the potential for immigration to stifle the rest of Congress’s business. “What you’re going to see McConnell doing is urging restraint. He’s already been urging restraint.”

A lawsuit has also been a popular suggestion among Republicans, perhaps as an expansion of the House’s ongoing legal effort targeting the president’s unilateral changes of Obamacare policy, which was officially filed on Friday. This avenue would avoid the murmurs of a government shutdown that confrontational spending riders elicit, but because the leadership hasn’t settled on a path forward, members of the GOP are also careful not to rule anything out before their leaders do.

“Everybody’s exploring a lot of options. But I would prefer a way to go to court. And also look at specific appropriations bills,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

McCain and Graham, along with “Gang of Eight” Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeff Flake of Arizona, have also suggested Republicans respond to the president by passing immigration reform legislation, starting with border security and ending with addressing the situation of the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country. This message infuriates Democrats, given that those four senators and 64 others voted for a comprehensive immigration bill just last year — though the House then refused to consider that bill or its own comprehensive proposal.

Many in the GOP are seeking a more swift reaction to the president than legislative immigration reform will bring, but that may be the most effective way for Republicans to override Obama. He even said as much on Thursday night.

“Congress certainly shouldn’t shut down our government again just because we disagree on this. Americans are tired of gridlock,” Obama said. “To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill.”

He then lost no time pressing his message forward, traveling to Las Vegas Friday as part of a national tour promoting his actions and making clear he planned to take advantage of his momentum while Republicans dallied. Top aide Dan Pfeiffer said on Friday that the administration would be “aggressive” with its plan of attack.

“He will make the case to the country — how it is consistent with past practice of presidents of both parties,” Pfeiffer said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “We will be making the case about what we did and for Congress to finish the job.”

Daniel Lippman and Carrie Budoff Brown contributed to this report.

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