Republicans, Democrats both lacking leadership

There is no doubt that leadership is lacking in Washington. It is lacking on both sides of the aisle, from the White House to the Senate to the House of Representatives.

What is ironic is when the president uses executive orders to get things done when the House fails to act responsibly or when the GOP in the Senate decides to filibuster.

What happens is the president gets blamed for playing politics with the Dream Act or other important legislation does not get done because the GOP cannot find itself compromising for the good of the nation.

Marco Rubio's crying over Obama's executive order concerning the Dream Act is disingenuous. The president did the right thing because of the filibuster by Senate Republicans. If the GOP wanted to show leadership on this issue, it could have done so.

If the GOP wanted to fix immigration, the Dream Act, the economy or any other problem, it could have done so with compromise, leadership and actually bypassing the Democrats in both houses and coming to the White House with proposals that were viable and workable.

In general, American history has shown that the Senate is the senior and more sensible of the chambers. Today, that fact is even more truthful and more important. The House is about obstruction — it has no inclination to work with president, even perhaps to the detriment of the country.

I find both parties despicable, lazy, lacking in leadership and most importantly ideologically unrelenting in their goals at the expense of the nation. Leadership takes leaders and the GOP has none. The Democrats have one who is slow to recognize the role and possibilities at his disposal.

President Obama is not the most dangerous man in the country — the most dangerous people are in the House and Senate when bad laws are passed or when political hacks in both houses think they are leaders because they can obstruct law.

Vincent P. Lacey

Yuma