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I'll take a shot at answering them, bus, sans the snarkiness and derrangement syndrome.

Two points of clarification though first. Whomever wrote that Bush has not exercised his veto powers at all is dead, flat wrong. Period. Also, in your first question, it is 2/3 to override a veto, but I know what you meant.

In dealing with vetos, there's also a pocket veto or, as here in SC, the executive can elect not to sign a bill and it will still become law so long as it ends with the magic words "becomes law on 'x date' unless vetoed."

The President does not have the power to introduce, amend or pass legislation. That is why the "line item veto authority" which was passed by Congress way back when was declared to be unconstitutional. If the President, no matter whom it happens to be, was able to exercise line-item veto powers (like most governors can) then to do so would be creating a new piece of legislation, by definition different than the one passed by the Congress. He's barred from doing that. What he can do is pursuade, advocate, champion, etc legislation. Also, the executive branch - not the President himself however - can promulgate new regulations when directed and authorized to do so by Congress.

An example of such langue is "Within six months, the Secretary shall issue regulations on conducting...." or something similar. Now, the Secretary - doesn't matter which Cabinet Secretary we're talking about - doesn't actually sit down with pen a paper and write them himself but when they are issued, they do act as laws. They don't contradict Congress' authority. To give a real world example, Congress has said "We want 100% of all containers arriving foreign to be scanned for radiation prior to loading within 5 years. We've passed the law now, Mr. Chertoff, go write up the details on how that'll be done and come back to us." Those regulations go on to be codified and we move forward.

What you have to remember, though, is that neither party has held a veto-proof majority yet vetos do get overriden. S-CHIP almost did, as an example, and, if there had been some concessions made then there would have been a solid enough majority to override a veto. (This was something that the President endorsed and cheerleaded for until it went beyond the original intended scope, by the way.) Same thing with a lot of legislation. If it passes with a certain majority, there will be enough juice behind it to override a veto. You just have to know how to count votes and know where folks stand.

In regards to your "finger pointing" then, well, tit for tat and whatnot. Leaving aside the schoolyard BS, though, you have to know the rules under which the House and Senate operate (they are different for each body). The important thing to know is that it is the committee chairs are the ones that can move a bill out to the floor - or kill it dead - but the Speaker or President Pro Tempore controls the timing of when it gets to the floor for a vote, if it ever does. [NOTE: Before anyone starts picking nits, yes, that is a bit of an oversimplification of the roles of the Speaker and President Pro Tempore but it's true and will serve so stop lining up to yell about things like "special order" and "contested calendar." Thanks] Congress controls what acts (once a bill has passed, it becomes an act and is enrolled for ratification) end up before the President to be signed but, specifically, the committe chairs and the leader of each body have far, far, far more to do with it than individual members. No party is uniform across the board, though, otherwise the current House and Senate leadership would have actually been moving their agenda forward instead of not. The House leadership, in particular, has found that a lot of the new democrats are pretty much center or center-right even. Not exactly what the progressive movement was hoping for.

And we've not touched on the role of the Minority Leadership or the Whips or....You get the point. The President has a lot of authority and does have a role in the lawmaking process but he does not have the authority and role most folks seem to think he does.

Clear as mud now?

PT