The care and feeding of the US Senate is a critical test of Presidential effectiveness.
Most fail.
And, you might think, "so what?" were it not for Supreme Court appointments and treaties, two Presidentio-senatorial acts which last a long, long time.
Frist is a weakling. LBJ could make a US Senator sit up and bark like a dog.
The opposition Senators need to be slapped down hard or Bush's problems will get worse. Except that Bush can't do the slapping.
I agree.
Except that Bush can't do the slapping.
But he can illuminate the nature of their inaction. Perhaps the voters will get the point, although I doubt it. What I don't doubt is that if the public "gets it," (i.e., prefers federal government in the model of the US Constitution) the Sentor will get the slap down of losing an election.
So far, the Senate has confirmed 7 of Bush's 12 remoninations to Circuit Courts, and 5 of the 7 that were held up by cloture in the last Congress. The fact that he tells Senate leadership to fight for an up or down vote tells me he is not inclined to accept what the Senate sees as status quo.