The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel and her Potomac Watch column are essential reading if you really want a sense of how and why things happen in Washington. But it won’t necessarily leave you encouraged. Say, for instance, you think Democrats have no hope of passing a climate change bill with Republicans in control of the House. (Just like you thought that would bring an end to Obama’s spending explosion, sillies.)

Barbara Boxer has news for you. Who needs legislation when you’re perfectly willing to abuse the authority of regulatory agencies to achieve the same end? And the perfect example is the energy holy grail for conservatives - the Keystone XL pipeline. Still not approved, you’ll notice. What’s the holdup? Well, the holdup is that Obama never does anything he doesn’t want to do unless he gets something pretty big in return. And his favorite ploy is to bully industry into supporting his priorities out of fear that he’ll bring the regulatory hammer down on them if he doesn’t. Strassel explains: