Obama Must Use 'Shame,' GOP's 'Sketchy Bladders'

With bipartisanship dead and Republicans in love with the filibuster, Barack Obama has few weapons. Marc Ambinder surveys the landscape and comes up with a measly two—shame and the "sketchy bladders" of old white Republicans. First, Obama must "shame Republicans. Increase the costs of not doing business" and somehow "make it more expensive for Republicans to continuously obstruct." That may be easier said than done, but it's "the ONLY way for Democrats to get anything done."

And if Republicans insist on using the filibuster, make them actually go through with the process. "Force the GOP—old white guys with sketchy bladders—to filibuster," writes Ambinder in the Atlantic. "Expose the ugliness of what the process is." Beyond that, there's not much Democrats can do. But who knows, it's "possible that obstructionism will run its course, and that Republicans, simply because the tactic becomes old and no longer seems to benefit them, will seek face-saving ways to compromise with Democrats." (More Democrats stories.)