But he didn't say shutdown! The funny thing is, everything else Republicans could do to use the funding mechanisms at Congress' disposal have already been tried. They can't even pass those restrictions out of the chamber of Congress they do control, let alone get it past the Senate and through the President's veto pen. So that leaves only one option, if they are going to use the power of the purse to keep the President from doing his job: shutting down the government.

I say Marco Rubio should go for it. Everyone already knows that the GOP "leadership", such as it is in Congress, is completely feckless and cannot stop their own party's rabid wingbats from ruining all their plans. Ted Cruz proved that last year, by singlehandedly shutting down the government while his Republican colleagues were left watching in terror as their party suffered the worst damage in the polls in recorded history. Cruz had the support of the Tea Party nutjobs in the party, and that's all that mattered. Nothing else - including the fact of Cruz's utter failure to achieve stated objective for the shutdown, preventing the Affordable Care Act from taking full effect.

I suspect that the President, being the brilliant strategist that he is, is well aware of this phenomenon within the GOP. And he intends to use that predicament to drive a wedge inside the Republican party. That the president has a legitimate case for his action - the Republican House has now had over a year to vote on the bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate and failed to take it up - makes his action even more potent and the GOP's predicament even more lethal.

If Marco Rubio moves to shut down the government over the President's action on immigration, which is likely to prioritize deportation of criminals and allow family members and skilled workers to remain in this country, one of two things is going to happen, both equally combustible for the GOP:

The GOP leadership will beat back Rubio's attempt and pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running after October 1. This will break the hearts and spirits of the Republican base incensed at the mulato in the White House treating other brown people humanely and at their own party for not "teaching him a lesson." They will see that move as capitulation by their party - which can certainly complicate the GOP's electoral math.



OR

The Republican leadership will capitulate to Marco Rubio, Steve King and other extreme elements of the party and shut down the government. In that event, the beating they took during last year's shutdown is going to look pretty good by comparison. Should that happen, Democrats stand a good chance of not just keeping the Senate, but perhaps even picking up the House.

Some Democratic Senate candidates from the "South Shall Rise Again" states have been weary of the political implications of a move by the president for them, but the Democratic party as a whole seems to be relishing the possible opportunity to deliver a devastating blow to the GOP over this.