The New York Times notices that the president has been forced to resort to unilateral executive action to get things done because Congress is broken. The Times even noticed something else:
For their part, Republicans appear to have largely acquiesced. Mr. [Chuck] Grassley said in an interview that his colleagues were reluctant to block even more bills and nominations in response to Mr. Obama’s “chutzpah,” lest they play into his effort to portray them as making Congress dysfunctional.
“Some of the most conservative people in our caucus would adamantly disagree with what Obama did on recess appointments, but they said it’s not a winner for us,” he said.
It’s funny how it’s almost a universal truth that you can get a bully to back down if only you will stand up to him. The pace of judicial confirmations has picked up substantially since the Republican landslide in 2010. The Republicans complain about everything, but they’re not doing anything substantial about the president’s new focus on using the executive branch to bypass Congress. Yes, they are sending an amicus brief to a case that challenges Obama’s recess appointments, but their heart isn’t in it.
On some level I think they recognize the president has to act. If he can’t get Congress to do anything, he must find another way. To insist otherwise is to insist on a completely impotent president.
