"President losing control"

So there's a lot of talk about how the President wasn't able to get his way on the DPW deal.
They're saying the President has "lost control of his party"

I'm sorry, weren't we supposed to have a divided system of government with CHECKS AND BALANCES? They didn't tell me in civics class that the proper way for government to work was for the executive to appoint lackeys into the judicial, and to control the house & senate.

This gives "empire building" a whole new (internal) meaning.