Corpus Christi Congressman Blake Farenthold appeared on CNN yesterday to tell Soledad O'Brien that he disapproves of President Obama's recent executive order, which will keep the Department of Homeland Security from deporting some undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children (for now, anyway.) "The president needs to come to Congress," he told her, adding a moment later: "We've got a president, we don't have a king."
For a minute it looked like we were in for a good debate about the efficacy and constitutionality of executive orders. Then things got distractingly stupid. Farenthold magnanimously added that children under 12 brought over are "innocent victims" who had no say in coming here. But the older ones? He's not too sure about them.
"You're talking about people that came over at 16 years of age," he informed the anchor. "At that point you had a say in it. That looks more like amnesty."
When O'Brien couldn't quite hide her incredulity, the congressman clarified that teenagers are "in a position to have a conversation with their parents about it," adding that his 16-year-old gives her opinion about darn near everything.
Adorable. This is just the kind of intelligent, reasonable commentary we're going to spend weeks fruitlessly changing the channel to try to get away from.
