I really can’t blame Speaker Pelosi for cussing out Harry Reid. Consider that the Senate has already allowed the Republicans twelve chances to amend the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill. All of those efforts failed, as they had to if Reid was going avoid sending the bill back to the House for another vote. (House and Senate versions of a bill must be identical). Despite allowing the Republicans to force difficult votes on his caucus (voting for earmarks, voting against money to investigate unsolved civil rights cases, voting against restricting money for forced abortion and sterilization, voting against funding for Native American safety and health) the Republicans now demand another twelve amendments before they’ll allow cloture.
That is what happens when you telegraph your position. Harry Reid needed to pass the bill by Friday or it would be necessary to pass another continuing resolution to keep the government functioning. Knowing that, the Republicans knew that the Democrats would have to defeat all their amendments, even if they were inclined to support them. They crafted most of their amendments to take advantage of this sitting duck situation. Harry Reid did not protect his caucus.
When Reid failed to win passage of the bill, Pelosi was forced to call the House back into session to pass the continuing resolution. She was inclined to just give up on the bill and punish the Republicans by taking away all the earmarks they keep complaining about. She was talked out of that drastic measure, but she has a point. At least, now, the Democrats don’t have to vote against every one of the next twelve Republican amendments because they have time to let the House vote on any changes.
There are two lessons here for Reid and Pelosi. First, don’t let a bill like this come up against a hard deadline where the GOP can play you for suckers and exact real damage on your caucus members. Second, limit amendments and make sure they are germane. Twenty-four amendments to this bill (all of them initiated by Republicans) is excessive.
The Senate Democratic Caucus has been a fiasco since the Carter administration when they fought each other for the honor of backstabbing the DP or later groveling to Reagan
what reid needs to do is step down or be forcibly ousted. he’s been as woefully inept as majority leader as he was when minority leader; constantly gamed and outplayed by the RATs. the man just can’t seem to think ahead….he’s probably a lousy chess player too.
looking at the current seniority list, either leahy or dodd would be my choice…they certainly couldn’t be any worse…snowball’s chance in hell, l know, but jezeus, the man’s an embarrassment.
Dodd was a close runner-up to Daschle way back when, but Reid isn’t going anywhere.
There is an historical paradigm to Harry Reid’s situation as majority leader in the Senate. The paradigm can be found in the corps of Union Army generals that were present at the outbreak of the Civil War. These generals were either supports of the Rebel cause or strongly sympathetic towards it. This pernicious strain of attachment to the Southern cause on behalf of these generals cost tens of thousands of Union soldier’s lives.
This is the most important part of the paradigm. The STRATEGIC FIELD CONDUCT of these Union Generals FAVORED the enemy, due to their reluctance to properly utilize their superior forces. The instances are many and have been well documented by historians of the Civil War. Lincoln was forced to sequentially replace each one of these generals under the normal rules of military proficiency requiring a record proving incapacity on the field of battle. This slow painful expensive process continued until he reached General Grant. While this process was underway, thousands of Union soldiers were killed as a result of the Rebel sentimentality entertained by these Union Generals originally from the south.
The sentiments of Harry Reid is with the conservative ideology of the Republicans, and as majority leader his sentiments are magnified in the way he manages members of his own party and more important it is mirrored in his respective strategy in controlling the business of the Senate. It is evident that what is missing from Harry Reid cannot be seen on the Senate floor. It is the behind the scenes planning and moves that should be designed to win approval for legislation consistent with the sentiments of the Democratic party faithful.
It is not that Harry Reid does not have the political skills; it is simply that he is a man conflicted between his party affiliation and his own personal conservative perspective. This personal conflict causes him to unnecessarily delay voting on important Democratic sponsored legislation, while blinding him to the obvious Republican tactics designed to oppose anything that the Democrats bring to the Senate floor. In response to criticism over his leadership, he keeps publicizing the lame excuse that the Democratic majority is working as hard as it can in a bipartisan manner with the Republican minority, and it is the Republicans who are introducing unnecessary delays in the Senate.
But this finger pointing is simply a smoke screen to hide the personal conflict that he is experiencing in his role as Majority leader for the Senate Democrats. In this capacity it is his responsibility to anticipate the rather elemental strategies of the Republicans and politically and parliamentary out maneuver them. The fact that the Republicans continue to use the simple tactic of piling up silly amendments to the bill indicates that they (the Republicans) understand that they have actually captured the sentiments of the Democratic leader of the Senate, and they need not worry about having to counter any sophisticated strategy from the majority leader.
Harry Reid Needs to GO.
There, much better.