The President has a constitutional right to veto any bill he disagrees with, as does the congress have the right to override that veto. That's a good system as far as I'm concerned, and I'm sure the founders knew exactly what they were doing when they devised it.

But there are disadvantages for both sides. If the President vetoes a popular bill, he takes a political hit, as does the congress if they override a Presidential veto on an unpopular bill. There will be a political price to pay for either one if they go against the will of the people, or perhaps I should say "their constituency". To frustrate this concept in order to help (or hinder) the President, is an abuse of legislative power, and it is a surrendering of legislative power to the Executive.

Its analogous to the situation with Obama's Supreme Court nominee. The GOP Congress had every right to reject him, but they might have to pay a political price if the public felt their rejection was unfair or too partisan. Instead, they refused to even talk to him. I suppose the appropriate sports metaphors would be "running out the clock" or "falling on the ball". And they had so much contempt for the voter that they never even realized that the voter would know what and why they did it make them pay a price.

These parliamentary maneuvers may be of some limited tactical value in that they affect some policy being implemented in the short term, but they are strategically disastrous because they reveal your moral cowardice in the long run. It is pretty clear that the Republicans are now preventing issues from coming to a vote when they know they will lose, and sometimes even when they know they will win! They are not just afraid of these outcomes, they don't even want to let the voters know their position on them. They are afraid of letting things come to a vote because they are afraid to take responsibility for that vote, even if they prevail! They are surrendering their checks and balances over the Executive, forgetting that tomorrow the shoe may be on the other foot and they will regret it. It is not only political malfeasance, it is, to say the least, very undemocratic, with a small "d".

We had a word for it in the Navy, it was "chickenshit".