"... nothing is unusual about Obama's use of presidential authority. And there's certainly nothing to justify the over-the-top rhetoric Republicans have used against him."

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COMMENT:  What you all fail to remember is executive orders (which are legal) have been used by every recent president in this nation. There is no intent to be a dictator. The president is just taking action because the House has refused to address immigration in any way, shape or form. Taking legal action against him when he is doing what is permitted by the law is stupid, to say the least.
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Obama Is Caesar! A GOP Charade Exposed
By Jonathan Bernstein, February 18, 2015

It's nice to be reminded that very few Republican politicians believe their own bluster when they accuse Barack Obama of "Caesarism" or of being a “king” or “emperor” or “dictator.” That's the one useful lesson from the Texas judge's injunction on the president's executive action on immigration and the administration’s quick and quiet compliance with that decision.

This nonsense is just used to appeal to those conservative voters who are easily duped (or evidence that many Republican politicians believe their supporters are easily duped). 

After all, if you truly believe a president is a lawless dictator, you don’t bother going to court against him.  He would just ignore what the court says! For that matter, you don't even try to block his orders by adding riders to appropriations bills, as Congress has done, because an all-powerful autocrat who supposedly flouted the law in the first place would slap down those challenges. 1

Instead of dramatizing Obama's supposed Caesarism, his detractors' actions show that the opposite is true.  The same Republicans who complain about tyranny have acted as if they believe lawsuits and new legislation are sufficient to tame him. 

In fact, presidential power and the authority of executive-branch agencies are ill-defined more often than not. The legitimacy of specific White House actions -- can this deadline be waived? can that enforcement be slowed? is this troop deployment constitutional? -- is often tenuous.

I'm not saying Obama has never overreached. Every president does that at times. It’s healthy when the out party challenges the White House’s authority. That's how checks and balances are supposed to work.

It’s just that nothing is unusual about Obama's use of presidential authority. And there's certainly nothing to justify the over-the-top rhetoric Republicans have used against him.

Just remember: The politicians themselves know better.

1.  As the Watergate scandal unfolded, many people in Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike, honestly worried Richard Nixon would defy court orders flat out -- a concern that was justified because Nixon and his White House regularly lied to law-enforcement authorities and obstructed justice in other ways. 

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