Ruled my @ss. Folks elected in November usually don't take office until the next January. Remember Jumpin' Jim Jeffords and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle during most of 2001 until January 2003? Remember Miguel Estrada, Janice Rogers Brown and the Gang of Fourteen, when 55 pubbies in the Senate couldn't get a vote to confirm either Estrada or Brown as circuit judges?
I remember a conservative and effective executive from a quarter century ago who was able to do a great deal despite a hostile congress, without a majority in either house.
But, as mentioned, he was actually conservative, and he was actually effective. It is odd that he is the one who is dismissed as an actor.