February 18, 2014 08:44 PM UTC

Tea Party role in failure of immigration reform absent from Gardner radio interview

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

House Speaker John Boehner announced last week that Republicans probably won't do anything on immigration reform, because "there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws."

This prompted Sen. Charles Schumer to suggest that Congress pass an immigration bill this year, with the stipulation that it not go into effect until 2017, after Obama leaves office. It was a creative idea, but Boehner rejected it, leading to ridicule by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. See below.

On KFTM radio last week, Colorado's own Rep. Cory Gardner sided with Boehner about being unable to trust the president to enforce U.S. law, but he added a new twist. It was a relationship issue.

Gardner: I think there is need for reform but the bottom line is the President has to show a willingness to make sure that the law is enforced and to be able to work with Congress. And really, it’s unfortunate that the fact, this president put no effort into building relationships with Congress over the past four years on either side of the aisle. It’s really starting to hurt his policy efforts now.

Listen to Gardner discuss immigration KFTM 02 10 2014

Omitted was any consideration of the idea that the relationship-management issues involved in immigration reform had more do to with the relationship between the Tea Party and establishment Republicans, not between Obama and Congress. Especially in light of the fact that the Senate already passed a bipartisan immigration-reform bill.

KFTM should bring Gardner back to find out which relationship-building strategies might have helped him work better with Obama–and with his fellow Tea Partiers.