How Republicans learned to love Obama

“Clearly, President Obama gave us a common focus,” said Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.). “Now that he’s gone, we have to govern. That’s always a bit of a challenge when you’re not just the opposition, but you’re now the governing majority. I hope when we go home for the next two weeks, our constituents will remind us of that so we can get on track when we come back.”…

“That’s the burden of being in the majority: you can’t blame anyone else. You’re in charge,” said Rep. Mike Simpson, a senior Republican and leadership ally. The Idaho Republican said he thinks some GOP constituents will be angry and could try to boot them from office.

It’s a much different dynamic than what they’d become accustomed to under Obama, when they deflected heat to the Democratic commander-in-chief. During an interview off the House floor, Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) said divided government also united the conference — at least some of the time.

“Not only is there someone else for whom to place the blame, there’s a unifying, rallying point of, ‘If only we didn’t have that person, or that entity, or that party, or that whatever, we would be able to do X, Y and Z,’” he said.