Syrian Shutdown, Con't

GOP Old and brokedown: threatening to shut the government down over Planned Parenthood.

GOP new hottness: threatening to shut the government down over Syrian refugees.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Republicans in a closed-door meeting Thursday that he is looking to address this week the concerns many GOP lawmakers have raised about Syrian refugees in light of the Paris attack, an anonymous source in the room told Politico.
It's not clear which steps Ryan will take, though Politico reported there are several legislative options to consider in the coming days.

Some Republicans have suggested attaching a measure blocking or restricting President Obama's refugee resettlement program to the must-pass spending bill due in December. Avoiding a government shutdown over the refugee program -- which Obama has continued to defend -- will likely be Ryan's first major test as speaker.

That's right folks, the government shutdown game isn't over yet, and the Paris attacks just threw the whole thing into doubt.  Ryan and Mitch the Turtle made it the official GOP position last night:

Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, embracing his new role as the highest-ranking Republican in Washington, was the leading voice in his party urging immediate suspension of a State Department program to settle Syrian refugees in the United States. The Republicans cited evidence that at least one of the Paris attackers may have entered Europe by posing as a refugee.

The Republican demands raised the possibility that legislation temporarily barring the admission of Syrian refugees could be attached to a spending measure that Congress must pass before Dec. 11 to avoid a government shutdown. Republicans said they had not yet settled on a legislative strategy.

“Our nation has always been welcoming,” Mr. Ryan said at a news conference. “But we cannot allow terrorists to take advantage of our compassion. This is a moment where it is better to be safe than to be sorry. So we think the prudent, the responsible thing is to take a pause in this particular aspect of this refugee program in order to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population.”

Mr. McConnell also endorsed a suspension of the program, which so far has brought only small numbers of Syrians to the United States and, Democrats noted, only after a lengthy screening process. The administration earlier this fall pledged to take in up to 10,000 additional Syrian migrants.

“We’re going to continue to have refugees as long as Syria looks like it does, and so what we need is a strategy obviously to give the refugees an opportunity to stay in their own country,” Mr. McConnell said.

The spoiler here is that the Republicans will never agree to unpause in this particular aspect while a Democrat is president.

The Donald also wasted no time in taking the lead on the demagoguery among the 2016 GOP hopefuls.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump is going after President Barack Obama claiming the administration is sending Syrian refugees to Republican states.

“They send them to the Republicans, not to the Democrats, you know because they know the problem… why would we want to bother the Democrats?” Trump told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham Tuesday, as reported by Politico.

The question becomes is this something the GOP can win, or is it their usual overplaying their hand and getting smashed by President Obama?

We'll see.  The answer is how many Democrats are believe they are going to survive political ads showing SCARY BROWN TERRORISTS and "Shame on X for possibly allowing deadly terrorists pretending to be refugees into our backyard!" voiceovers next year.

We'll see, and soon.