Be Productive.

Is it dead? Is it alive? Is it in limbo? Or is it just too hard for this Congress to swallow?

Of course, we're talking about the arduous journey of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) in the 113th Congress. CIR advocates refuse to give up. After all, they succeeded in securing the Senate's passage of S 744 in June. Yet when it comes to HR 15, it's yet to see the light of day on the House floor despite growing bipartisan support.

But now, a top Republican CIR supporter is preparing to admit defeat. Why?

"I agree with what they said that it's unlikely that it's going to happen in the remaining days this year,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida) said during an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos. "And I also think that if we don't get it done by early next year, it's frankly—you know—potentially dead."

Diaz-Balart’s GOP colleagues have pumped the brakes on immigration reform in the House.

Leaders won’t take up a sweeping overhaul passed by the Senate in June. Moreover, they say no bill will get to the floor without the support of a majority of Republican lawmakers. That’s a tough task for the GOP conference, which is deeply divided over immigration.

He's only admitting to what his party's "leaders" have been signaling since July. As the G-O-TEA Civil War rages on, House Republican "leaders" fear the wrath of the 21st Century Know Nothings. And they actually seem to fear this more than losing future general elections. And that's led to this weird conundrum of some top Republicans pushing for CIR while others keep doing all they can to kill it.

Deep down, Rep. Diaz-Balart and other PRO CIR Republicans know that the only way CIR succeeds is if the House passes HR 15 like the Senate passed S 744 (in a truly comprehensive and bipartisan manner). But in order for that to happen, either House Republican "leaders" will have to show some leadership or more rank-and-file (cough- Joe Heck- cough) will have to stick their necks out in demanding a floor vote for HR 15.

Instead of wasting even more time on even more pointless crap, that lower House of Congress can actually be productive for a change. But if "leaders" there truly don't care about being productive, then they need to be prepared to live with the consequences in 2014 and 2016.