However, the former South Carolina GOP senator said, Republican leaders, like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, have figured out that they either give President Barack Obama "all the money and debt he wants or he's going to close the government down and blame it on them. So I think they did what they thought was the only thing they could do."
Sadly, DeMint is correct. Obama knows with full certainty that he can blackmail and intimidate Republicans. They allow Obama to do whatever he wants because of the knowledge that the President can successfully blame the consequences of opposition, real or imagined, on Republicans.
Obama can do so for three reasons: first, because the news media is nearly uniform in its support for Democrats and for their agenda, and is equally hostile to the GOP. The second reason is, lacking a broad national vision and any discernible communicative ability, Republicans have not yet figured out how to overcome the first. The third reason is that the elected GOP leadership shares with nearly all Democrats a fondness for Big Government and for the centralization of power and influence in Washington... just a bit less of it, and without the Left's ideological hostility to business and traditional values.
For these reasons, even if the GOP today controlled the Senate, Obama would still be working his will - with greater difficulty and at a slower pace - but he would ultimately get his way, via veto threats, Executive Orders, filibusters and the free commercials known as Presidential press conferences, as broadcast by a news media that acts as Obama's press agents and public relations managers.
