Last night the pundits on FOX and MSNBC missed the real story of the election.
Maybe it’s because, with one exception (Chris Matthews, who was a House staffer when I was*), none of the numerous pundits on FOX and MSNBC have ever worked on Capitol Hill. They don’t really understand the process. Karl Rove** worked in the White House, so he has the least excuse.
Charles Krauthammer, as usual, got closest to the mark. He pointed out that President Obama can continue to use the under-the-radar regulatory process to advance his agenda. For example, as he noted, most of the regs for Obamacare haven’t been written. Every year unelected regulators write reams of laws that are never voted on.
In addition, Obama can continue to appoint “czars” and many top-level officials without Senate approval.
But what Krauthammer, Matthews, Rove and all the rest missed was the major story of the election. Senate Republicans are now in a much better position to cause trouble for and even deep-six Obama’s nominations, particularly judicial nominations, including the Supreme Court. In the House, the Republican majority now has subpoena power that enables them to open investigations into matters the Administration would like to keep under wraps.
Let the fun begin.
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* Chris and I were both on the House professional staff. He was chief of staff to the Speaker while I worked for Members and a subcommittee at various times in my congressional staff career as legislative director, press secretary and counsel.
** Karl Rove and I were in College Republicans together. I helped run the campaign of my friend Bob Edgeworth, the conservative candidate for CR president. One of his two opponents was Karl (my future wife Alison, whom I would not meet until years later, helped run Terry Dolan’s campaign, the other candidate!). Karl has always been as conservative as the man who paid him.
