On the Renacci-Joyce wingers; Pete Crossland, Rob Portman, Steve King

Now that we won't have  Republican congressmen to kick America  around for at least five weeks, I want to fill in a few blanks from the past week's immigration vote debacle:

Your two GOP representatives from northern Ohio - Jim Renacci and David Joyce - joined the heavy seas'  Cruz revolt by voting for a nonsensical grandstanding substitute bill with zero chance of getting past the Senate.  Both congressmen  have occasionally  been called ''moderates" in the  mainstream  media.. But a glance at their records show they come down squarely on the hard-wrong nutsy side that so pleases the Cruz mob.

So let's not continue the phantom portrayal of them as anything but lockstep wingers.

Renacci is opposed in a Republican designer district by Democrat Pete Crossland.  And when you mention this long-time party  loyalist and officeholder to other Democrats, some just shrug.   Let me tell you about shrugging:  The Democratic Party owes him.  He assumed the party's face-saving role when no other Democrat - even at his urging - would agree to accept the challenge. He didn't think an area with so many Democrats should leave the ballot space blank.  That, alone should wave off the shrugs, unless you are referring to the County Democratic Party these days.

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So how did Sen. Rob Portman view his party's collapse in the House to the Cruzers?

He flew out of Washington and eventually turned up Friday at the Ohio State Fair, which has always been a welcome managerie for politicians.  There, the Dispatch reported, he did what comes naturally for GOP pols these days: He blamed President Obama for the humanitarian crisis.    But as with so many of his cautious non-answers about other issues he  said he favored  a policy shift on immigration. Considering that he belongs to a political group on Capitol Hill  that's  frozen in place, that would take years.  Besides,   wasn't it  President Bush who signed the document in 2008 that gave migrants time to state their cases for remaining in the U.S?

(Portman, lest we forget, was Bush's budget advisor, and you know how that turned out.)

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And now for some really heavy lifting:

Daily Kos reports that a  House bill to honor Pope Francis for "inspirational statements and action" in advance of  his 2015 visit to the U.S. has met with tepid response from Republican congressmen.

Of the 221 co-sponsors only 19 are Republicans.  According to a Republican supporter of the measure, some of his collegues believe the Pope sounds  too much like Obama,  particulalry when he wants to help people in ways that are "more humane, noble and fruitlful, and which bring dignity to their presence on the earth."

Daily Kos also reminded us that Rep. Steve King, one of Cruz's wacko dittos,  said the U.S. needs the strongest of immigration laws because the border was created by God and any attempt to violate it is  "disrespectful of God".  

King, by the way, lives in Kiron, Iowa (pop. 279) and belongs to the Odebolt Chamber of Commerce.  For God's  sake, if you want to know more, look it up!