Oh why can't we have leaderly leadership

Jon Favreau is tired of hearing the whinging about why won't Obama lead the pack of GOP lunatics to sanity. Worth a read in full but here's the most important point that our insidery inside media doesn't seem to ever get to:

Today, a minority of senators can kill bipartisan legislation that is supported by a majority of their colleagues. And they frequently do. In the House, the speaker alone can kill bipartisan legislation that is supported by a majority of his colleagues. And he frequently does.

They do this not by changing minds with persuasion, but by blocking it with arcane procedural tricks that were meant to be used rarely, not as a standard method of governance. Both sides don't do this. I would say more but Booman already has it covered at length.