[Hoot Gibson]

Still better than Reid and Pelosi I would think. Dick Morris has a book out entitled "Power Grab." Among his stated concerns was the charge that the Democrats are trying to make the US a one party nation. That would answer a lot.

If the US is entering a political era in which the only way anything can be accomplished is when one party has the White House as well as both congressional houses, we're in very big trouble. In my mind, Republicans are still trying to show some respect, while many Dems are not. It would be one thing to remodel one's house while he yet lived there. Quite another to tear the house completely down with no other place to live. Likewise, the ebb and flow of a Congress in the throes of voter remodeling is an aggravation, but we can still live here. We have a two party political system in this land, if we manage to destroy our system of government in tearing it completely down, I would guess our problems would be far more severe than the ones we gripe about on this forum.

The founding fathers set up a system of checks and balances to prevent one branch of government from dominating the other two. I don't think that they ever imagined that one branch would unilaterally surrender its power to a corrupt, anti-American president.

Congress has two primary tools to ensure that the executive branch does not become dominated by a tyrant: the power of the purse and impeachment. Republicans wasted no time following their dominating election victories of 2014 in announcing that they did not intend to use either of those tools under any circumstance.

Obama has taken unprecedented and unconstitutional actions to seize power that the Constitution reserved for the legislative branch. Yet, to combat that power grab, Republicans are scared to death to take drastic, but constitutional actions to flex Congress's muscles in response to rebalance our government.

A courageous Senate Majority Leader would eliminate the filibuster in the Senate. Then, Republicans would pass hundreds of bills that have been bottled up by Harry Reid and the Democrats for years. Obama could either break all records for vetoing legislation or he could come to the bargaining table and look for common ground.

Obama has shown time after time in dealing with foreign policy issues that he is one of the worst negotiators in the history of the world. What does it say about the Republican Party that they cannot formulate a negotiating strategy that results in Obama getting at least equal blame for failing to enact popular laws?

I honestly suspect that many members of both parties in Congress are scared that they will be next to get the Bob Menendez treatment from Obama's Justice Department if they stand up to him. I cannot think of any other explanation to make sense of the cowardly behavior of most members of Congress.