With their misleading talk about passing an immigration bill this year, Republican leaders are partly to blame for House majority leader Eric Cantor’s defeat at the hands of an unknown college professor.

House speaker John Boehner was a particular offender as he, from time to time this year, talked vaguely of enacting an immigration reform bill. What that legislation might contain, he didn’t say. But this allowed opponents of any immigration measure to shout “amnesty,” as if Boehner wanted to give legal status quickly to illegal immigrants in this country in 2014.