By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Just after President Obama announced that he was reforming America’s immigration policy through executive order, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, let loose a wail.

Boehner said Obama’s action made comprehensive immigration reform through congressional action much harder to achieve. He also called the president’s action illegal.

A Boehner spokesperson went even further, calling the president “Emperor Obama.” And other Republicans – including Indiana Gov. Mike Pence – have threatened to sue to overturn the president’s order.

Column by John KrullA lawsuit would be a brilliant political move for the GOP. Nothing says “family values” quite like going to court to separate children from their parents during the holiday season.

And, by trying to deport parents of children who are U.S. citizens, that is exactly what Republicans would be doing.

As for the “Emperor Obama” nonsense: Well, as president, Barack Obama is the chief law enforcement official for the United States and prosecutorial discretion is a well-established legal principle.

More to the point, Obama has used executive orders less often than any president going back to Chester Arthur. Ronald Reagan issued 50 percent more of them than Obama. And Calvin Coolidge – now often cited by small-government conservatives as a model of presidential self-restraint – issued seven times as many executive orders as this president has.

Then there’s the silliness of Boehner’s complaint that the president has made immigration reform much more difficult.

How, pray tell?

What legislative power did the House Speaker have at the beginning before the president spoke that he does not have now?

What, given that Senate already has passed a bipartisan immigration reform package that the president has endorsed, other than Boehner’s own fear that he’ll lose support with House Republicans has stopped and continues to stop him from acting?

The reality is that there is nothing preventing John Boehner and other enraged Republicans from dealing with immigration other than their determination to place their short-term political goals above the long-term interests of their party – and, yes, the nation.

The fact that Boehner and his howling chorus are behaving like school kids isn’t the only thing that’s tiresome about this episode.

It’s that they don’t even behave like smart school kids.

Ever since Barack Obama was elected president six years ago, Republicans have said, over and over again, they wanted to “take him on” and “fight him every inch of the way.”

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, famously said that his caucus’s highest priority wasn’t national security, job creation or improving education, but making sure that Barack Obama was a one-term president.

Along the way, they’ve called the president of the United States – aka “Emperor Obama” – everything but a child of God.

Most school children know that, if you run around the playground calling another kid names, screaming that you want to fight and pushing him every chance you get, there’s a chance he’ll swing back.

That’s just what happened here.

After getting beat up in the mid-term elections, Barack Obama finally figured out that Republicans don’t like him, won’t work with him and intend to keep pushing him. So, he hit the Republicans right in the mouth.

And, surprise, surprise, Boehner and his GOP boutique brawlers have discovered two things that generations of school kids learned much earlier in life.

Fighting involves getting hit as well as hitting the other guy – and getting hit isn’t much fun.

That’s why smart school kids tend to fight only when there’s no other option.

Given that Boehner, McConnell and the other Republican marshmallow maulers seem to have skipped over that important lesson about settling their differences like school kids, I’ll help them out with this little bit of advice.

Whining only makes it worse.

It’s not only undignified, but it just tells the other guy how and where to hit you so it hurts the most.

John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits” WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

By Lesley Weidenbener
TheStatehosueFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – House Minority Leader Scott Pelath had a message for the business leaders, reporters and political leaders gathered last week for a preview of the 2015 legislative session.

“I’m fine.”

The Michigan City Democrat said he appreciated the expressions of concern he’d received from friends and Statehouse observers since Republicans nabbed a couple more House districts and strengthened their majority to 71 of 100 seats in the chamber.

Pelath had acknowledged the losses were setbacks. But a couple weeks after the election, he was clearly ready to move on – and wanted others to stop dwelling on it as well.

“Enough of that, OK,” Pelath said with a laugh that conveyed he was only partly joking. “I’ve been through a lot of elections. Some go well, some go not exactly how you want. Sometimes you have the wind at your back, sometimes it’s in your face. You always fight to provide alternatives so that people have a choice.”

Pelath told the crowd that he would not “sulk over the short term” and will instead take a long-term view of the role of the Democratic caucus and its efforts to return to the majority in the House.

The latter could take a long, long time, unless Republicans make some pretty bad decisions that truly anger voters. But the Democrats’ role in the short term will be – as Pelath points out – truly important.

Although the Democrats don’t have even enough seats to prevent the GOP from having a quorum to do business, they can still be effective – if they pick their spots.

Earlier this year, Democrats combined with more moderate Republicans to strip a ban on same-sex civil unions out of a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The move restarted the constitutional amendment process, which prevented the proposal from going on the ballot this past election.

And Democrats are likely to be influential in an upcoming debate about school funding as well. There’s no doubt the school districts they represent will be among the hardest hit by changes Republicans want to make in the way education money is distributed to districts. But some GOP-represented districts will be hurt too. If Democrats can pick off some of those frustrated Republicans, they may be able to sway the outcome of that legislation too.

Of course, what will make Democrats most influential is Pelath’s personal power. He has a rare ability to be highly critical of GOP leadership without becoming personally harsh. As a result, he and House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, have developed a surprising mutual respect that serves both caucuses well. More than once, in fact, Pelath has expressed empathy for situations Bosma finds himself in as the head of a huge majority.

Still, Pelath can be blistering when he chooses. This past week, he said about the state’s unemployment report that “a rising economic tide that lifts only a few and submerges the rest isn’t something to be bragging about. It’s something to stop.”

And speaking about Gov. Mike Pence’s decision not to seek federal funding for pre-kindergarten programs, he said GOP leaders “talked like pro wrestlers, while demonstrating the backbone of invertebrates. It would be fun to watch if these circumstances didn’t offer grim omens for the schoolchildren of Indiana.”

It will take all of Pelath’s skills to keep Democrats relevant as the 2015 session begins. But he might be in a better position to do it than anyone else.

Lesley Weidenbener is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.