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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Senate Majority Leader Harry ReidHarry Reid still hasn’t seen enough obstruction from Senate Republicans to support filibuster reform, saying, “The only way we’ll get rid of the filibuster is if it continues to be abused.” He has either been sound asleep for the past four years, is the most trusting man alive, or he is simply and completely full of the brown stuff.
I believe that what’s going on here is that filibuster reform would actually make life more difficult for Reid and the rest of the Democratic caucus. Their job isn’t to enact progressive economic laws that their corporate donors oppose, it’s to quietly prevent them while avoiding blame. The continued existence of the filibuster makes this easy: They can all declare their undying support for financial reform, or the public option, or tax increases for the rich, and then let the Republicans do all the dirty work of blocking it.
But if there’s no filibuster and all the Democrats need is a simple majority which is easily attainable, Reid must engage in reverse whipping: Finding enough conservative Democrats from the Villain Rotation to vote against Progressive Bill X in pretend defiance of the party leadership. Instead of just exposing one or two at a time to the wrath of their state’s Democratic voters, Reid could find himself forced to burn half his villain pool on every vote.
Worst case for Reid: Conservadems get primaried and replaced by progressives who refuse to join the Villain Rotation. Best case for Reid: Conservadems get primaried and replaced by actual Republicans, making his job even easier than it is now.
57 Comments
I’m starting a new metaphor. From now on, whenever somebody takes a weak little ineffective incremental baby step after weeks and months of righteously angry rhetoric about fixing something, it’s going to be known as a “Harry Reid”.
Eli! Rise up, revolt.
That’s all I got.
BG!
Harry Reid, the Sternly-Worded Letter of Majority Leaders.
Hmph! You’re giving him too much credit. To think I sent him 20 bucks to defeat Angle….
I was actively rooting for him to lose. He’s a much more valuable asset to the GOP than any freshman Republican Senator could ever be.
You had the right idea Eli and I tip my hat to you or would if I was wearing a hat, (and you could see it).
I have a problem with your title. It should be “The most stupid and/or evil man in the world”. Still , recc’ed for the content.
Good to see you here, Eli. Great post.
I pretty much agree on ole’ Harry. Angle, not so much. We have too many crazies in congress now and she was a truly dumb woman and crazy besides.
By George, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head…..for Obama too.
Best explanation I’ve seen.
How it happened.
Sahl Kapur, TPM: Filibuster Reform Ends With A Whimper: How It Fell Apart
Violating trust = violating secrecy so that the public knows who’s doing what. A club of 100 privileged bastards.
he was fed angle on purpose so he could doing what he is doing. he could have passed fili reform in 08 with problem solving bills from pelosi’s house. but didnt-at the same time in 08 obama was surrounding himself with centralist corp tools like emanual and all the clinton/banker tools. the fix is in. you need to go after the media outlets that cover this problem dishonestly. hell dems wont even go after voting or gerrymandering problems-even after bush/gore
Eli,
What a wonderful post. It eloquently describes the spineless democrat(Emphasis mine) senators.
And the MOTUs are very happy with the job that Reid and the Senate Democrats are doing, too.
I agree that the Senate needs a talking filibuster, but I don’t think the constitutional option is the best way to achieve it. I’m actually willing to give Harry a break here. Is it possible that he’s attempting to protect the United States Senate, as an institution, against a republican party that has turned its back on the American public? Republicans have proven themselves to be a party that will take any immoral, unethical, or illegal means at their disposal to thwart the will of the majority. To let these assholes destroy the US Senate because they want to be a bunch of crybabies is abhorrent.
I’m not really sure what that article said. But I got this: forgetaboutit for this time around.
I suspect the fix was in from Obama down. No one or few really wanted it. Isn’t that what Eli said?
Harry Reid : tepid oatmeal.
I forget which brilliant pup made that comparison, but it’s still relevant after all these years.
DDSOS (different day-same old shit) in DC. Who is really surprised with this outcome?
You hit the nail on the head. The fix is in.
Two Words: Kabuki Show.
Shorter Harry Reid: I’m doing what my corporate paymasters are paying me to do. Suck on it! CHA CHING!
No offense, but none of the pols in Wash DC are “spineless.” They have PLENTY of spine to spare. They are doing EXACTLY what they intend to do, and it’s what they’ve been highly compensated to do by the PTB.
That’s
just cynicalpainfully true. Harry Reid makes tepid oatmeal seem exciting by comparison…Hiya, Jane! Thanks!
Yeah, note that Obama and most other Democrats are only ever “spineless” in one direction. They’re impressively steadfast in their ability to stand up to us dirty hippies.
The Good Lord blesses this prick with Sharon Angle and this is the thanks He gets. They are spineless bastards.
Bingo!! This is exactly right. Now WTF is going to be done about it? I expect a lot of sound and fury from the erstwhile “left” followed by business as usual.
Weasel….bought and paid for.
I’m sure that Reid was left in place for reasons that have nothing to do with the Good Lord.
The filibuster is the perfect excuse for Senate Democrats. It allows them to sound like champions of the unwashed in public while whoring for rich donors in private.
In 2009-10, the mandarins of the Democratic Party hit the trifecta:
(1) Thanks to Democratic inaction on the filibuster, progressive health-care legislation died on Capitol Hill and an unpopular Rube Goldberg contraption passed instead.
(2) Then, thanks in large part to anger over the Rube Goldberg health-care bill, the Democrats suffered an epic beatdown in the midterms.
(3) Then, thanks to the epic beatdown in the midterms, Republicans gerrymandered congressional districts to the point that they’re likely to control the House for another ten years.
Gerrymandering and the filibuster will be the Democrats’ excuses for doing nothing for a long time to come.
Exactly. As the old saying goes: “Just what the ‘Doctor’ ordered.”
Everyone in DC is very happy with the current state of affairs. Suits the 1% & the marionettes in Wash DC down the ground. CHA CHING!
What this post shows is that the Democrats need the Republicans so that they are not themselves blamed for what is wrong. Another illustration is all the Dems joining the likes of Jindal and Christie lately in beating their breasts about the GOP’s need to “modernize” in the wake of the November electoral embarrassment. (Of course that itself can only be done through more sophisticated means of lying about the GOP’s core interests.) The Dems desperately want to avoid the other party going the way of the Whigs, in which case responsibility would no longer be avoidable.
Benjamin Franklin called the senate the COOLING SAUCER OF DEMOCRACY- more like a spoiled food freezer
As others have said, this is exactly right. The filibuster is working exactly as the D’s need it to work.
That’s the only option we have left!!
Bingo!!
He’s a fucking liar, obviously. I wouldn’t piss on him to put him out if he were on fire.
This was the case in 2009, when Reid got the 60-vote passed by the Senate Dems:
Indeed. Senate Democrats are lovingly beholden to the tradition of the Senate as a bulwark against democracy in general and progress in particular.
Except for Sen. Merkley, of course. He’s taking on near-heroic status with his troublemaking.
Does anyone need more evidence that there is One Party control in the US? The Dems are just the place that good social and justice movements go to die, and become irrelevant forevernmore.
And some here (well, many, really) think voting third party is wasting your vote? Imagine what it could have meant down the road to have done so!
If there was any evidence of blackbox voting fraud, it was the Green Party vote, which a friend showed me never changed in percentages or numbers during election night. Makes a lot of sense to me.
This whole discussion, from Eli on down, has provided some decent talking metaphors. Tepid oatmeal, and then your concise statement that summarized life as lived in the 21st Century.
Wendy, if your friend could write out an account with links, re: the Third Party Vote Tally, and let you post it here, I am sure many of it would read it with interest. Something is still quite rotten in the state of California’s “Voting” situation. For instance, we all found out that Prop 37, which would have required the GM foods to be labelled was defeated by half a million votes. this was quickly announced on the day after the election. However, 1.3 million (or more) ballots still had not yet been counted! And were not counted for yet another ten days!
Is it possible given the conservative nature of his religion for a morman to be a real fdr liberal? not trying to offend just seems like a huuuuge contridiction
This is an old story. From
Indispensable Enemies, regarding the book by the same title, by Karp:
The more interesting question is “When are progressives going to start throwing some Democrats under the bus?” Yours truly has outlined a Goldilocks’ sized step for progressives (as well as other groups of citizens) to start building their political muscle. See Twisting Your Congress Critters’ Arm – A Goldilocks’-Sized First Step In Domination by the Electorate (Short Version)
Excellent.
Great post, Eli, nice to see your pixels around the joint again. Don’t be a stranger!
Thanks.
I thought Reid finally had enough of the deliberate tactic by the gop to paralyze
or at least pull the teeth out of the Obama program. No change in filibuster rules
means putting us and the economy through a longer more painful recovery period
that will not restore our living standards for many years. Job growth will slow way down.
Improvement in labor regulations and labor union bargaining power will be non-existent.
Unemployment, poverty and despair will be prevalent among the various classes that
depend on wages for their livelihood.
Upon graduation our school age children will be working for minimum wage even
with college degrees And living at home! If our liberal leaders like Reid are willing to
ignore these likely outcomes then they are not on our side. But they can’t possibly be
members of the republican party! So why are they Reid et al, allowing the anti-working
peoples party to block the renowned Obama manifesto?
Why won’t 50 of the 55 democrats insist on changing the filibuster tactic. Why can’t
50 of 55 be persuaded? Why won’t Reid put it on the floor for a vote? Oh it won’t pass so
it is pointless right? No, that is not the reason there will be no vote.
We will not be allowed to see which “democrats” are actually not democrats when
“Push comes to shove.”(ie filibuster rule reform) If those “democrats” were outed then
voters that thought they were electing liberals would discover the true views of their
congressman or woman. The pretend liberals would have to either reconcile and defend
their views or change their party. But then there may be fewer democrats. I would say that
an obstructionist republican and a closet obstructionist democrat are not very different.
Misleading constituents, concealing true economic views, and hiding loyalty to a
wealthy campaign contributing interest group ought be publicly exposed anyway,
I am beginning to wonder though, since Reid said over and over “filibuster reform now”
then bailed if all those ‘severe’ sounding”hands off” social security-medicare-medicaid
statements will soon be in the wind. So goes the Club of Princes and their cover story. I would guess the club has just enough members to convince everyone of how powerful they can be with the corrupt filibuster rule. Don’t overturn it because of the Power we have to solicit or wring contributions from small in number special interests but wealthy in cash.
What we know after decades of trying is that the names should be reported as Dianne Feinstein (Sen-K Street), Bob Corker (Sen-K Street) and so on for all 100 of the jokers.
Case in point:
I’ll go with the brown stuff. I can’t think of any “Democrat” who isn’t full of it.
The opening comments have it –
he doesn’t have a backbone, the only think keeping him upright is the brown stuff. The democant enablers are almost as bad as the republicants, actually may be even worse – they talk the talk as they fail to back progressive, let alone democrat positions.
Mormon shmormon, the only true religion in Washington D.C. is MONEY. Once you are reborn to it, there’s no going back.
The Democratic Party serves as a great pillow or cushion. When popular political opinion swings to the Left, The Dems are there to catch that pendulum, absorb the energy and smother it. The filibuster is too effective a tool for smothering good legislation to ever get rid of it.
It’s a sad thing to realize that this country isn’t going to get it done. It just doesn’t have what it takes. Pity. It could have been such a great century.
Now of course if you talk to Obots they will point to the tepid, ineffective reform was instituted and claim it as GREAT progress. Even if you are able to drive home the point that nothing has, in reality, changed they will claim that change doesn’t happen in a day and mutter something about “baby steps” or incrementalism.
Which brings me to the other great D Party attribute: the ability to pass empty gourd legislation, dress it up with a nice Progressive sounding title and trumpet it to the grinning masses as something important. And Obots eat it up.
But, that’s life in the Land of Madness.
I said more or less exactly the same thing in response to another diary only yesterday:
The bottom line is that this diary is exactly right. By not reforming the filibuster, Reid and the rest of the Dems in control of the levers of power in the Senate get to wear the cloak of plausible deniability. It makes things easier for them, not harder. They can pay lip service to progressive ideas and tell the rubes how they “would do all sorts of wonderful things they’ve said they want to do for years if only those nasty evil Republicans would just let them.”
Exactly. We saw it with public option-less health insurance reform during Obama’s first term and we’ll see it again.
Thanks for the post Eli. Nice to see you here.
when the time comes again, (and it will) that the democrats are in the minority, first the won’t even use the filibuster when it counts, and second if they do you can bet the repukes will exploit “the nuclear option” and get their way anyway