Kos Spanks Harry Reid
By Bronwyn's Harbor on October 16, 2009 at 10:00 AM in Current Affairs
It’s well known that Senate majority leader Harry Reid is in trouble in his own state of Nevada, and that even his son (photo left) is running third in the primary contest for governor of Nevada. The Reids aren’t very popular with the hard-hearted Democratic left either. In “Harry Reid abdicates his leadership role,” Kos — yes, that Kos — writes:
Bill Frist never had 60 votes. Bill Frist never cared. Republicans ran the Senate as if they owned the place, even when enjoying razor-thin majorities.
Yet when Democrats took the chamber, the first thing Harry Reid did was complain that he couldn’t do anything because he didn’t have 60 votes.
Then voters delivered 59 votes. And Harry Reid whined that he still couldn’t do anything. In fact, nothing would ever get accomplished unless they had 60, and to do that, they had to bring turncoat Joe Lieberman back into the fold, even though he had spent the previous year making common cause with John McCain and Sarah Palin, even speaking at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. You see, we were told, Joe Lieberman is with us on everything except the war! So we need him for 60, and when we have 60, everyone will get ponies! And if Lieberman strays, why, Evan Bayh said Senate Democrats could punish him!
If he does retain his chairmanship, we still exert oversight over him and control over him. He doesn’t have the ability to just do whatever he wants. The caucus still has the right to remove him from that position at any time if he starts going off on some kind of tangent.
Control him? Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Good thing we never believed his bullshit, because neither Bayh, nor Reid, nor any of the ineffective corporatist Dems would ever let this sort of thing actually happen. Lieberman knows this, which is why he’s once again making common cause with Republicans.
So once again, Reid is complaining that he doesn’t have 60 votes, which is why they need to anoint Olympia Snowe as de facto President of the United States. Maybe SHE will get us to 60! But we all know Snowe has no intention of voting for real reform, and yet Reid (with White House backing) continue to let themselves get played. It’s all a farce.
So much for 60. Still, don’t ask Harry Reid, Democratic Leader, Senate Leader, and the party’s #3 leader to actually start leading.
[...]
Isn’t is clear to everyone that Harry Reid is a poor leader? That he oozes a tepid weakness, rather than exuding strength? That he has a tin ear, and mucks up the Democratic message?
Is there another Democrat in the Senate who could replace Reid? That’s not a hypothetical question. In Nevada polls, Reid is behind both of his Republican challengers, and even worse off in his favorability ratings.
Today’s Washington Post has the latest on polls about Reid and his son, as well as the widely-discussed problem of having two family members run on the same ballot:
Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid’s (D) long-awaited announcement today that he would run for governor of Nevada in 2010 means that he and his father — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) — will be on the same ballot next November.
While both Reids downplay that rarest of occurrences, there is concern among some Democratic strategists that two Reids running statewide in 2010 is one too many for Nevada voters.
“Given that Harry Reid is in trouble for having priorities other than Nevada, being on the ticket with his son is not a good thing,” said one senior Democratic strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly.
Neither Reid starts their bid in particularly strong position. A recent Las Vegas Review-Journal poll showed Harry Reid trailing two little-known Republican challengers. In that same poll, Rory Reid placed third with 25 percent in a three-way matchup with former U.S. District Judge Brian Sandoval (R) and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman who is weighing a bid as an independent.
[...]
The blogs are full of gloom-and-doom predictions about Harry’s fate in 2010.
Jane Hamsher, another noted blogger who’s often interviewed on cable news, has an excellent section on Reid’s inability to bring discipline in his leadership role. In “If Harry Reid Allows The Silent Filibuster, It’s All On Him,” Jane, a liberal and a friend, talks about how Reid must handle the public health care option:
[...]
So if Reid won’t enforce caucus discipline, if as Majority Leader he now says it’s acceptable to use the “60 vote” threshold to water down the bill, he has to wear it. No matter how he votes personally. No matter how much the White House makes a fetish of bipartisanship and courts Olympia Snowe. No matter what cover anyone else tries to give him.
This time he can’t play “pass the hot potato” and try to assign responsibility to someone who is not vulnerable. Been there, done that.
if Joe Lieberman’s silent filibuster means that the HELP Committee public option is not in the final bill, Reid owns it.
If Blanche Lincon’s unspoken threats mean the opt-out is in the final bill, Reid owns it.
If Ben Nelson’s allegiance to Nebraska insurance brokers means the Finance Committee’s co-ops are in the final bill, Reid owns it.
If the White House says the final bill needs to be the Finance Committee bill so Olympia Snowe is happy, Reid owns it.
If the public option, which the majority of the country and the vast majority of Democrats want doesn’t make it to the floor, Reid owns it.
A new poll shows Reid has a 38% favorable rating in Nevada and a 50% unfavorable. He trails Danny Tarkanian by five points.
Either Harry Reid enforces caucus discipline on this one or it becomes the model for every single piece of legislation that comes before the Senate from hereon in. It guarantees that every piece of Democratic legislation is written by the caucus’s most conservative members. We give the power to the corporations to pick off the whores and write our laws. All they need from hereon in is one.
[...]
Booman Tribune is more optimistic, and imho naive:
Probably more than any other sitting U.S. Senator up for reelection next year, Harry Reid’s prospects cannot be judged by present polls. Reid will be judged by Nevadans’ interpretation of his job performance as Majority Leader, and if they think he has accomplished a lot, his poll numbers will rebound. If Obama’s agenda is repeatedly blocked by filibusters when Reid technically has 60 members to overcome them, the voters of Nevada are going to conclude that he is ineffective. …
It’s a no-brainer that the polls will tighten in the Fall of 2010, but I doubt that Nevadans care nearly as much about Reid’s performance as majority leader as they do about the woeful state of Nevada’s economy.
The phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” matters more than ever. With Las Vegas and the rest of the state struggling, all Nevadans want is for their senator to create jobs. Instead, Reid is being pressured by President Obama and the hard left on health care at precisely the wrong time.
If Harry had the b___s, he’d storm into the Oval and slam the door, and tell Obama that, if he wants to save the Democrats’ majorities in Congress, Obama and Congress first need to grow jobs and win back the confidence of the American people. But Harry doesn’t seem to be made of the stuff required to take that kind of action.
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