The Obama White House: Comedy Farce Central

[NOTE: This post has been UPDATED]

If the White House weren’t the White House the destroy-the-border immigration scam they’re pulling might be almost funny. Almost. But, alas, it is the White House, and because of the sensitivity of the incumbent’s sycophantic supporters describing what we’re seeing as “black humor” is not an option. Dark humor is probably suspect for the same reason. Gallows humor might work, but I’ll just go with farce — “something that is supposed to be serious but has turned ridiculous” — or, according to the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, a play “that is based on ridiculous and unlikely situations and events.”

First, take (Please!) the White House spokesperson on the border fiasco,  Cecilia Muñoz.

Act One of the farce is her appointment as  Director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, an appointment that was neither the first nor the last example of Obama’s broken promise about not letting lobbyists touch policy related to their former employ. He had been president for less than two months when Politifact, the “fact checker” that almost always defends Obama from his critics, declared that promise broken.

Muñoz, for those of you who have forgotten (or repressed the memory), was chief lobbyist for La Raza (“The Race”) for about two decades, during which time one of the milder things she said was accusing opponents of illegal immigration of being members of “hate groups.” She has, however, on occasion refrained from fully endorsing amnesty … for an interesting reason, as the Center for Immigration Studies has pointed out:

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), for instance, rejects the concept altogether: “Amnesty — there’s an implication that somehow you did something wrong and you need to be forgiven.” Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza makes the same point in a more sophisticated fashion; the word “conveys a sense of forgiving someone for a crime,” she says, when in fact, crossing the border illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. A quick look at Title 8, Section 1325 of the U.S. Code shows this to be false: Illegal entry into the United States is a misdemeanor on the first offense, and a felony afterward.

So much for the background; now for Act Two. Get ready to laugh … or cry, depending on how you normally respond to “something that is supposed to be serious but has turned ridiculous.” Here is Ms.  Muñoz, formerly (?) of La Raza, as reported by The Hill, responding yesterday to questions about whether the border crisis (what border?) is Obama’s Katrina:

“I think it doesn’t make sense to compare this to a natural disaster. This is a humanitarian situation that we have been on top of from the very beginning,” Cecilia Munoz, the White House Domestic Policy Council director, told MSNBC on Wednesday. “It involves the entire federal government, it involves our partners in Central America who have acknowledged that we all share a responsibility to make sure we stop this situation before it starts.”

She’s of course right about one part of the comparison: George Bush didn’t cause Katrina, and he did not refuse to repair the levees. On top of from the very beginning! A responsibility to make sure we stop this situation before it starts! See what I mean by “ridiculous and unlikely situations”? You, or at least I, can’t make this stuff up. It’s hilarious. If a comedy writer is scripting Ms. Muñoz’s one liners, he or she is not being paid nearly enough.

[Take a brief intermission to recover; return shortly for Act Three. (Yes, there is more!)]

Act Three. Here are ace Obama followers reporters Karen Tumulty and David Nakamura in the Washington Post yesterday.

Obama’s goal now is to make clear to adults in Central America that there is no payoff for sending their children on the dangerous journey northward, said Cecilia Muñoz, the White House domestic policy director. “He feels intensely a responsibility to prevent an even greater humanitarian crisis,” she said.
….
While there have been waves of unaccompanied minors in recent years, the most recent surge “was different dramatically, and the minute it was clear that the numbers were looking differently [sic], the president acted,” Muñoz said.

It will be most entertaining to see how Obama meets this “goal,” since it is obvious to everyone involved, and even not involved, that there is in fact an enormous “payoff” for these illegal entrants, except for the probably miniscule minority who may ultimately — if they show up for their court dates some time in the next several years — be deported.

And, well, yes, “the president acted.” He acted to disperse what the New York Times has estimated is nearly 300,000 recent illegal immigrants to “family members” across the United Staes, without checking, the Daily Caller reports, whether those “family members” are themselves legal residents.

Perhaps the most farcical observation of all, however (at least if one excludes reporters Tumulty and Nakamura reporting Ms. Muñoz’s tripe with a straight face), is Muñoz’s claim that Obama “feels intensely” his responsibility to avoid an even greater crisis. Really? To date (and that includes this outlandish claim) there has been no evidence whatsoever that President Obama “feels intensely” about anything, except maybe whether his selfies are in focus.

Yesterday, ABC News reports, the president was playing golf at a private club in Maryland with ESPN co-host Michael Wilbon. Perhaps Ms. Muñoz could provide some evidence — overheard caddy comments, for example? — of the president demonstrating, or at least expressing, his intense feelings. Would that be before or after putting?

“Today,” Vanity Fair reports, “President Obama departs for Martha’s Vineyard, ‘a playground for the wealthy and well-connected,’ according to populist travel pamphlet Politico.” Perhaps the pool reporter can relay some photos of the president feeling intensely from Air Force One, or on the way to or from the golf course after his arrival to party with his rich and famous friends.

The White House’s tripe served up by former (?) La Raza lobbyist Ms. Muñoz aside, the president’s recent (and not so recent) failure to enforce the law or protect the border does raise an interesting question, which I’ve asked before: Is the Commander in Chief subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice? “If so, then he could be court-martialed since dereliction of duty is a clear violation of the Code’s Article 92.”

ENCORE: UPDATE 14 July

Who knew the Administration was filled with so many stand up comics? Attorney General Eric Holder, usually too busy calling Americans “cowards” and his and the president’s critics racists for not falling in line behind their preferred policies (especially their preferred preference policies), displayed heretofore hidden traces of humor yesterday when he told George Stephanopoulus on ABC News’s This Week that “Yes. The immigration laws are being enforced….”

Say What?