YES, REPUBLICANS ARE PLANNING TO BLAME DEMOCRATS AGAIN FOR A GOP GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

After President Obama announces executive action on immigration, Republicans may very well shut down the government -- and on Meet the Press today, Bobby Jindal was already trying to blame a GOP shutdown on Democrats:

CHUCK TODD:

Very quickly on immigration. If the president goes through with his executive action, do you think Republicans and Capitol Hill ought to use even the power of shutting down the government to stop him from doing it?

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL:

Two things. I don't think the president should shut down the government to try to break the Constitution. The reality is this. I do think the--

CHUCK TODD:

You think the president would be shutting down the government?

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL:

Oh, absolutely.

CHUCK TODD:

So you do want Republicans to fight him on this to the point that it could shut down the government?

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL:

Absolute-- I don't think the president should shut down the government.

CHUCK TODD:

But you're twisting my question.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL:

But wait, wait.

CHUCK TODD:

That means you want that kind of showdown?

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL:

Let's step back and understand what we're talking about. So the president said, "I want to break the law." He purposely said I’m going to wait till after the election, because I know it's not going to be popular to grant amnesty to millions of folks here that are here illegally. We had an election. He said his policies were on the ballot.

He lost in red states, purple states, blue states. The American people overwhelmingly rejected and rejected his policies. Now he's saying, "I'm still going to break the law." Talk about arrogance. This president used to say, "Elections have consequences." We're talking about how can the Congress force the president to follow the law?

I would expect even Democrats who may agree with him on substance, to say the right way to do this is to follow the Constitution, follow the law. No, we shouldn't shut down the government, but absolutely Republicans should do everything they can to force the president to follow the law. Let's secure the border. No, the president shouldn't shut down the government so that he can break the law.

At that point, Todd just gave up trying to make the factual point that if the government is shut down it will be because Republicans chose to do it. (To give Todd his due, he'd just finished persistently questioning Jindal's decision to refuse the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.)

Jindal's "I don't think the president should shut down the government" line isn't exactly original; many Republicans still insist that Democrats were to blame for the last government shutdown, a line that sounds perfectly logical to the wingnut base but was met with disbelieving laughter when Ted Cruz insisted to CBS's Bob Schieffer last January that the president did the shutting down.

It doesn't really matter -- Republicans never seem to pay a price at the poll for this sort of thing -- but I guess they can't get out of the habit of trying to create their own facts.