President Obama has said he had a pen and a phone and would use them if Congress didn’t act. He insinuates Congress does nothing to help the American people.

He seems to forget there are more than 380 bipartisan bills sitting on the desk of his top lapdog, Harry Reid, who refuses to bring them to the floor for a vote. Why? If they are truly bad and Reid has control of the Senate and his minions, there shouldn’t be an issue. Maybe Obama can call Reid and knock them loose? Never mind. I know his phone is dead.

The phone must be dead, because for 214 days he was unable to make a call to Mexican President Enrique Nieto on behalf of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi. He also was unable to get Sec. John Kerry on the phone – nor was he able to reach California Gov. Jerry Brown, who hosted the Mexican president in California – to discuss the issue with either of them. Interestingly, a State Department spokesman said they had visited the sergeant several times in prison. Apparently, he was too doped up to remember.

At first I thought the president must be working behind the scenes with his staff and team like he did to secure Bowe Bergdahl’s release, right? That had to be it. After all, getting one Marine who made a wrong turn out of a Mexican prison had to be much easier than releasing five terrorists who swore jihad on Americans in exchange for one potential traitor and deserter, right? Wrong.

I believe President Obama once again showed his contempt for our military men and women by completely ignoring Andrew’s issue.

Really, how easy would this have been? Obama calls Nieto. “Yo, Nieto, help me out here. I need to get a boatload of these Dems re-elected so we can set up some more watering stations in the desert for your people to be able to make it across the border safely, so they can work and send money home so you can steal it from them. I can’t do that if we don’t win. So send the Marine home. Tell them what a great job I and my administration did to negotiate a release, and I can almost guarantee open borders for all. Waddaya say?” Sounds easy enough. Or he could have suspended NAFTA with that pen of his until he was released.

All I can figure is that what the president did was to respect another country’s legal system and allow their laws to play out. I guess Mexico doesn’t have an “executive order” clause for Nieto to use whenever he feels like it.

Looking back, it was the “do-nothing” Congress, not the “do-everything-wrong-and-in-secret” Obama administration that got Andrew released. It was several Republican representatives, including Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce, Matt Salmon and former Gov. Bill Richardson who went to Mexico and kept applying pressure on the Mexican attorney general. The judge didn’t release Andrew. It was the attorney general who dropped the charges, forcing the judge to release Andrew.

One unnamed source said that when the attorney general was explaining how America should understand that Mexico is a “rule of law” country and allow Mexico’s legal system to run its course, the representative basically responded, “So is America. Would you like us to allow our legal system to work as it pertains to illegal immigration?”

Andrew had already been diagnosed with PTSD by several American doctors and by two of the three Mexican doctors who examined him.

Our so-called “friends” to the south couldn’t take our word for it. Our “friends” to the south couldn’t allow us to send the drugs he needed because they could not make a way to administer them. Our “friends” to the south wouldn’t allow us to send in a doctor to treat him. Instead our “friends” to the south allowed this man to be hogtied, naked, for three days after he first arrived there. Guards and inmates threatened him with is life. He was beaten several times and not fed consistently. These are our “friends” to the south?

Can someone send me links showing how we mistreat Mexican nationals in our jails? And don’t send me pictures of overcrowding. I’m talking serious mistreatment. We give them medical care, clean clothes, clean water, nutritious food, clean linens and phone calls. No wonder they want to come here.

The hypocrites to the south consistently call us divisive and hateful and tell us we don’t understand the plight of the Mexican national. Yet the first chance they get to show understanding and mercy to one of our own Marines, they spit in our face.

The Marine sergeant was in prison 214 days without medication, medical care, visits from the State Department, and basic assurance of his safety. Meanwhile the president spent 214 days able to play golf, 214 days able to fundraise, 214 days eating dinner with his family or guests, 214 days of just not caring for that man who would have given his life for that same president in a call of duty.

Now what? If this is the way Mexico is going to treat our people, tighten the borders. Suspend NAFTA. And let’s sit down with our so called “friends” to the south and come up with a real agreement. Or we can do what the Dems would do and block them from our Facebook page.

Either way, get the president a new battery for his phone and a year’s supply of ink for that pen.

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also an elected member of the Hart School Board. His commentary publishes Mondays.