Election 2012 didn't fix broken government (Photos)

The Obama “mandate” was given with too heavy caveats. The first caveat is that voters gave to Obama a Republican House of Representatives. The second caveat is voter legacy that continues to provide a base for conservative resistance.

So the news from The Hill is that there is no “fresh start.” It is a continuing slugfest. Republicans continue to refuse to acknowledge their defeat and act as if they actually won. John Boehner is barely hanging on as Speaker of the House. His problem is the same as Obama’s, voter-created resistance.

Holding up appointments to important government departments is nothing short of sabotage. The GOP continues to press on that course.

“No fresh start for Obama, Republicans

By Russell Berman- 01/12/13 06:00 AM ET

President Obama’s second term hasn’t begun yet, but a set of new fights with Republicans is already well underway.

Another major budget battle, immigration reform and gun control top his 2013 agenda, and this week he announced a trio of key Cabinet nominations that could complicate all three of those priorities.

A potential ally on immigration, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), called Obama’s nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) for defense secretary an “in your face” move, while the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions (Ala.) angrily denounced his pick of Jack Lew to head the Treasury.

As for John Brennan, Obama’s choice for CIA chief, Republicans are signaling they could hold up his nomination until the administration provides long-sought answers to their questions about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi last September.

Most troubling for the president is that the latest vitriol is coming from the Senate, the chamber of Congress with which the administration has gotten along (relatively) well in the last several months.

The House, on the other hand, is verging on a lost cause for Obama.
The president and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are barely on speaking terms after their latest failed bid to strike a grand bargain on the deficit, and there appears to be minimal overlap between Obama’s top priorities and those of House Republicans – namely entitlement reform, spending cuts and broad tax reform.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/276797-new-year-but-no-fresh-start-for-obama-gop#ixzz2HlhrzgrI