AP: With the Senate lost, Obama prepares to be his own obstructionist

Yesterday, we talked a bit about President Obama's assertion that - since Republicans have taken control of the Senate - it's "not enough for them to simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt." As usual, Obama neglected to mention that Harry Reid, his "obstruction czar," had denied votes on hundreds of Republican-passed bills.

For the entirety of Obama's tenure, Reid has served as a sort of firewall which prevented "uncomfortable" bills from reaching the President's desk. Now, the AP has noted that the President faces a new reality - one in which he can no longer rely on obstructionist allies to protect him. He'll have to fire up the veto pen and become his own obstructionist:

Since taking office in 2009, Obama has only vetoed legislation twice, both in fairly minor circumstances. But with Republicans set to take full control of Congress next year, Obama is losing his last bulwark against a barrage of bills he doesn't like: the Senate. "I haven't used the veto pen very often since I've been in office," Obama said in an NPR interview airing Monday. "Now, I suspect, there are going to be some times where I've got to pull that pen out." He added: "I'm going to defend gains that we've made in health care. I'm going to defend gains that we've made on environment and clean air and clean water."

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In other words: "If the GOP tries to undo any of my boondoggles, I'm going to stop them. I worked long and hard on these disasters, and they're not going to undo everything now." Mitch McConnell claims that he's ready to have the ideological fight.

"Bipartisan jobs bills will see the light of day and will make it to the President's desk, and he'll have to make decisions about ideology versus creating jobs for the middle class," McConnell said in response to Obama's comments. "There's a lot we can get done together if the president puts his famous pen to use signing bills rather than vetoing legislation his liberal allies don't like."

The problem here is that most of the agenda which Obama really believes in will fly directly in the face of widespread job creation. That's going to be the crux of the battle, and it's going to lay the groundwork for 2016. Will Democrats be willing to embrace pro-business, pro-job, legislation if it means sacrificing a few sacred cows? Probably not, since their base won't tolerate any move that they perceive as a "move to the right." The goal for the GOP should now be to pass as much legislation as possible, regardless of whether or not Obama will sign it. Force him, over and over if necessary, to veto conservative bills, and then play the P.R. game to make sure voters know exactly what his party's ideology really is. At the same time, force Hillary to take sides on every single one of the bills, and build a war chest for the next presidential election.