You're welcome. The framers set up a very constrained, arduous system. I like to think of the US Constitution as a design schematic for a whack-a-mole game.
NEXT QUESTION: "Will the Dems actually use those mallets against 'their own?'"
Here's maybe a partial answer:
Hoyer: Don't count on Obama delivering on promises
CNN News Live | 11/10/08
Posted on 11/10/2008 6:53:45 AM PST by pabianice
Just on CNN, Congressional Democrat Hoyer talking about all the promises Obama made to win the election. In rather blunt terms, Hoyer cautioned that, because of all the "conservative Dems" that have been elected to Congress, no one should expect any of Obama's tax cut promises to actually happen for, oh, "12-24 months," if then because, you know, the economy is in bad shape and many new Dems will balk at further increasing the national debt (now at $11 trillion), blah, lie, blah.
This may be the all-time record of a Democrat announcing that last week's promises are, ah, 'no longer operative.' Hoyer suggested that since Obama has had his first highly classified briefing on the world economy, he may be forced to back-off on his campaign pledges.