President Obama has succeeded in abusing his power more than Richard Nixon thanks to the support and enabling of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and his team who “roll over and acquiesce” to every White House whim, charged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Harry Reid right now is Barack Obama’s most important protector. Harry Reid shuts down the Senate, prevents any meaningful oversight, which means Harry Reid is the president’s enabler,” said the outspoken conservative and Reid’s foe.

“When the president ignores the law and ignores the Constitution, Harry Reid and Senate Democrats stand up and cheer and that is profoundly dangerous to our liberty,” said Cruz on the nationally syndicated and top-rated Mark Levin Show.

Cruz, an advocate of limited government, believes that the president has abused his authority by using the Internal Revenue Service to target Tea Party groups and picking which laws he will enforce and which he won't.

But he pushed his charge further talking to Levin on Monday night when he said that Obama has reached levels of abuse that Nixon could only dream of. And he blamed a supportive Democratic Senate for helping Obama, where Nixon faced stiff pushback from his own GOP.

“When Richard Nixon abused his power, when Richard Nixon tried to use the IRS to target his political enemies, Republicans rightfully called him to account and decry him. That was the right thing to do, it was the principled thing to do. No president should abuse his power,” said Cruz.

“What’s different now is that when President Obama openly scoffs at the laws on the book, when President Obama and the Obama administration not only tried but they succeeded in using the IRS to target his political enemies — Nixon never succeeded but Obama did — not a single Democratic senator, not one, is willing to stand up to President Obama and call him to account. That is unprecedented to have senators who simply roll over and acquiesce in the usurpation of power from the executive be undermining of the rule of law.”

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.