Casting Obama as "the bystander president" is gaining traction.

The President is seen as aloof, disinterested and disengaged - more interested in hosting galas and hobnobbing with his media admirers and making center-stage speaking appearances than dirtying his hands with the business of governing.

The dirtying his hands part is right but the governing style is the hands-off style of a godfather - hardly a bystander. The godfather sets the tone and doesn't want to know the dirty details - just get the job done.

The godfather of the Lucchese crime family doesn't have to spell out just what his "goodfellas" have to do. When Don Corleone wants someone murdered he doesn't just say "Murder the bum" or  "Blow his head off." Rather it's "Maybe he wants to sleep with the fishes" or "Maybe he needs a little do up."

Obama's goodfellas or enforcers take their clue from their godfather by his posturing hints and his Chicago mafia-speak euphemisms. It cannot be an accident that from Holder to Sebelius  to Miler that "they know what to do." They know what the godfather wants. The know they "gotta do what they gotta do."

All just accidentally on the same page?  Sure.