How David Vitter is giving the GOP White House hopefuls a headache

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

The Vitter birthright amendment is starting to make some GOP presidential hopefuls and other Republicans nervous.

This week Sen. David Vitter (R-Louisiana) put forth and amendment to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 that would deny U.S. citizenship to babies born in the United States, if the baby’s parents are both undocumented immigrants or lawfully-admitted non-immigrants.

You can see the obvious trouble with Vitter’s plan, it has nothing to do with human trafficking. But it’s apparently a big thorn in Vitters underbritches, becasue he keeps pulling it out and trying to unload it through bills and anmendments. He’s been sponsoring birthright legislation for several years, to no avail; he campaigns on the idea; and now he tried to stick it onto the most rare of legislative sightings, a bill that has bi-partisan approval. The Human trafficking bill will take money confiscated from traffickers and use it to help the victims of human trafficking. What could be a more positive, uplifting, and problem-facing act?

The good senator from Louisiana seems to think it’s too good.

He should have consulted with his fellow GOP’ers first, especialy the ones with an eye on the White House. None of ’em want to talk about it, what’s more, they’re actively avoinding the issue – they don’t want to look this birthright baby in the eye, becasue it forces them to take a public stand on immigation. That’s not their plan. Judging by their prior actions and their reaction to the Vitter amendment, they planned to keep imigration alive by ignoring it on the floor of House of Representatives, while using it as kindling to fire up their base. It’s a good plan, if you’re first goal is to survive the Republican primary gauntlet. But this amendment? It’s too loud, too public, too … unneeded at the moment.

Rand Paul is doing a poor job of dancing around it, saying he hasn’t read it yet. Marco Rubio is not responding to questions about the amendment. And Ted Cruz, who isn’t shy about making his mind known, is asking that folks direct their questions about the amendment to his communications office.

Sounds like Vitter is playing a polka that none of them want to dance.

Even the non-presidential Republicans are fretting about it. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) is reported to have said he prefers that a vote on birthright citizenship be done separately. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) says birthright has nothing to do with human trafficking and Dean Heller (R-Nevada) wants to put the amendment on the enate floor, although he says he hopes it doesn’t kill the trafficking legislation.

Heller’s not alone. Minority leader Harry Reid says he’d like an open amendment process for the Vitter proposal. But ole Harry couldn’t help himslef, first he said the amendment was “stupid,” then he said it should be open to force his Republican colleagues in the Senate to publicly take a stand on the issue.

What is it about the GOP that it keeps tripping over itself?

Twice this week. First the open leter to the Iranian leadership, signed by 47 GOPers, made a quick turn-around and has come to take a bite off of their apparently unsuspecting backsides. The 47 are being labeled traitors by many on the left. And even if the traitor label is too harsh, it does point their letter in a negative direction, becasue it undermines the nation’s ability to conduct foreign policy and it smacks of a lack of patriotism. It’s made the GOP look like a sloppy, unruly, tantrum throwing bunch.

The Vitter thing makes them look clueless, and sadly, it’s better than looking petty.

That’s the good news. The Republican leadership in Washington is on the move, from petty to clueless. It’s a step in the right direction, unless they manage to trip themselves again.