Harry Reid

The Disappointing Filibuster “Reform”: Basically More Of The Same!

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After so much discussion of changing the filibuster rules of the US Senate—including the idea of a 51 vote majority, instead of 60, being enough to move forward on legislation, and the requirement to the return of the “talking filibuster”—ultimately, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has made a deal with Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to make only slight, minor changes in the filibuster rules, with senior members of the Senate reluctant to push for major reforms, because both parties realize either could be in the minority in the future, and would want the power of the filibuster to promote their agenda, or prevent actions harmful to their interests.

The reform plans of Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and New Mexico Senator Tom Udall, therefore, fall by the wayside, and instead the veterans, including Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin and Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, won on the issue of keeping minority rights to bottle up legislation.

This is a massive blow to the Obama Administration, and makes the likelihood of much of his program and agenda to have a real chance to pass into law far less likely.

So the Senate, as great a body as it has been historically, remains the center of gridlock and stalemate, and adds to the low rating that the Congress has in public opinion polls.

This is a very disturbing development for those who were hoping for real change!

Bipartisanship Of The Past: Why Not Now?

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When one looks at American history in previous recent decades, one sees so much evidence of bipartisanship between Republicans and Democrats, and one wonders why that is not possible now in the interests of the nation!

Witness the following examples:

1962–John F. Kennedy calls upon Dwight D. Eisenhower for help and counsel during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1963–Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and calls upon Dwight D. Eisenhower for advice in a moment of crisis.

1964–President Lyndon B. Johnson calls upon Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen of Illinois to help push through the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

1983—President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill work together on Social Security reform and get it passed.

1990s—Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia works with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on arms control legislation, lessening the dangers of nuclear war after the end of the Cold War.

2000s—Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona works with Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin on passage of campaign finance reform legislation.

2001—Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts works with President George W. Bush on education reform.

Instead of publicly calling for the move to make Barack Obama a one term President, as Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky enunciated in 2009, or Speaker of the House John Boehner to use foul language against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and to say he refuses to have any more private meetings with President Barack Obama, what we need is mutual respect, and willingness to cooperate!

And this includes the idea that both Republicans and Democrats need to “cross the aisle”, and stop vilifying each other as the “devil”, as this prevents doing what is good for the American people!

The country is sick of the partisan wrangling and the lack of respect and dignity displayed, and is calling for Congress to act like adults and to work cooperatively with the President, who always has an open minded attitude toward discussion and compromise within reason!

The Republican Party And Debt Default And Government Shutdown: Constant “Hostage Taking” Tactics!

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Now that the “Fiscal Cliff” battle is over, and Barack Obama has won the battle on raising taxes on high incomes, a compromise at $450,000, instead of his original plan of $250,000, already the Republican Party, which lost the battle with only one third of them supporting it, but with Democratic backing and agreement to conduct a vote by Speaker John Boehner allowing it to pass, are creating a new crisis with reckless, irresponsible Republicans ready to fight on the issue of the raising of the debt limit, which must occur by the end of February. A new “Hostage Taking” situation is being created once again!

Among those Republicans who are arguing for a debt default and government shutdown are:

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
Senator John Cornyn of Texas
Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky
Senator Mike Lee of Utah
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota
Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, Majority Leader
Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, House Budget Commitee Chairman
Congressman Kevin McCarthy of California, House Majority Whip

Among those arguing against it, but not in public office are:

Former Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
Just about any sane Republican who held office in the past and is holding his or her head in their hands in grief at what their party has become!

Speaker John Boehner has said that we cannot renege on the debt, and he knows that the government shutdown in 1995 by the House Republicans under Newt Gingrich during the Bill Clinton Administration was a disaster, and helped Clinton win a second term, and public opinion polls backed Clinton during the debacle.

But Boehner, having lost support of a dozen House Republicans in the Speakership vote on Wednesday, is weakened, and has a massive headache with Tea Party radicals and others who should know better than to play games with the fiscal health of the American economy!

Boehner has already said he will not speak privately with Obama, and has already insulted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid with foul language, which he has not apologized for.

This creates a very awkward situation as the deadline nears iin late February, and all it will do is boost the ratings of the Democrats and President Obama, and further degrade the Republican Party future. Obviously, their defeat in November has NOT changed the mindset of the GOP, and that spells tragedy for their political futures!

A thought that comes to mind is that Vice President Joe Biden might again have to be called upon to negotiate with Boehner and others, since Obama and Reid seem to have no possibility of private discussions with House leaders or Senate leaders. Biden may, again, save the day, for the umpteenth time!

The point is that the Republican Party is fighting a losing battle for public opinion, and if there are bad economic implications, they will be the ones to suffer for it in 2014 and 2016!

Speaker Of The House John Boehner: Worst Speaker Of Modern Times!

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Speaker of the House John Boehner faces a vote today on whether he will retain his job in the new 113th Congress.

For so many reasons, he should be repudiated, although the alternative of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is no better!

Why should Boehner be removed as Speaker?

Boehner has presided over the most unproductive, least accomplished House of Representatives since at least World War II, if not throughout American history! The 112th Congress has been a total disgrace, with a public opinion rating of 12 percent!

Boehner has been totally unable to quell the Tea Party Movement within his party, a group that is destroying the party’s future!

Boehner has set a bad example by his drinking, smoking, and tanning habits, all of which are a terrible model for young people.

Boehner has utilized foul language toward Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite the fact that he must meet with and work with the Senate leader in the aftermath, and that demonstrates poor judgment and leadership!

Boehner has now indicated that he will NOT have any more personal, private meetings with President Obama, which insures further deadlock and stalemate for the next two years or more, and is a contrast to Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill and President Ronald Reagan, and even Newt Gingrich with President Bill Clinton.

Face it: Speaker Boehner is a disgrace to his office, and should NOT be two heartbeats away from the Presidency under the Presidential Succession Law of 1947!

Obscene, Crude Behavior By Republicans And Conservative Ideologues: No Common Decency!

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Republicans and conservative ideologues have no limits as to their obscene, crude behavior.

Witness the news that Speaker of the House John Boehner, passing by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, uttered “Go F—Yourself”, which startled Reid, and Boehner repeated it. This was done, all because of the frustration of Boehner with Reid and the Democrats over the difficult bargaining on the “Fiscal Cliff”. It is certainly believable that anyone can have such thoughts, and might even state so to his friends and colleagues about someone else, but to use such language directly eye to eye with the person being attacked by such invective, is totally unacceptable, totally crude and obscene, totally unbecoming of a Congressional leader or anyone else in the public eye! Boehner needs to apologize publicly to Reid, but is unlikely to do so, but this makes further communication and negotiation with political rivals all that much more difficult! As a public figure, Boehner needs to set an example of good and appropriate behavior!

Let us not forget that during the George W. Bush Administration, Vice President Dick Cheney said the same words that Boehner utiliized against Reid, against Senator Patrick Leahy in the Senate chamber, and never apologized, and in fact bragged and gloated about his misbehavior and lack of class!

But it is not just foul language as mentioned above, but also the attack on Hillary Clinton by Republicans and conservatives who think her concussion and hospitalization with a blood clot is a lie, designed to prevent her from having to testify about the Benghazi, Libya terrorist attack on September 11, which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.

So fun has been made, and accusations have been uttered, that Hillary is not really sick, that it is all a cover up!

Among those saying this on camera are:

Former Florida Congressman Allen West
Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton
Conservative ideologue Laura Ingraham
Charles Krauthammer of Fox News Channel
Bill O’Reilly of Fox News Channel
Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel
Rush Limbaugh, radio talk show host

And this is just a short list of cynics, who have no common decency, no compassion, no humanity, and know very well that the Libya matter is all conjured up, not a real issue. But it is the view of the right wing wingnuts that they must attack Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden and other Democrats, simply because they are alive and breathing!

Nothing will stop the nasty, insulting, disgraceful behavior of Republicans and conservative ideologues in their mission to destroy America through character assassination of our political leaders, as long as they are Democrats!

The 112th Congress The Worst In Bill Passage Since World War II!

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The 104th Congress of 1995-1996 under Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole had the worst performance of any Congress in fifty years, when it passed only 333 bills into law.

But now the 112th Congress has surpassed the 104th Congress in mediocrity, as under Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, ONLY 219 bills have been passed, and this coming after the 111th Congress (2009-2010) was the most productive since the 89th Congress (1965-1966) under President Lyndon B. Johnson!

The common thread of the 112th and the 104th Congresses is that in both cases, the House of Representatives was under Republican control, and with Republican control also in the US Senate for the 104th Congress. Split party control in the past two years between Democrats and Republicans turned out worse than the Republican control of both houses in 1995-1996!

The Growing Role Of Vice President Joe Biden

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Any thought that Vice President Joe Biden, who was a major factor in the successes of the first Obama term and in his reelection efforts, might start to “disappear” after the election is effectively dormant!

Biden has been asked by President Barack Obama to head a team to come up with some kind of plan for gun regulation, which does not take away the Second Amendment, but shows a level of responsibility to protect the American people from gun maniacs, who are now able to buy large magazines of bullets and assault rifles without any regulation. If anything, the killing of volunteer firefighters outside Rochester, New York, by a crazed murderer, only adds to the tragedy of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, and earlier this year in Colorado and too many other places, the mass death or wounding of innocent people!

But also, Biden is working behind the scenes to try to come up with a deal to avoid the “Fiscal Cliff”, and he is highly respected by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and more importantly, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, as well as House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

There is no guarantee that Biden will have a magic potion on the issue of gun control or the “Fiscal Cliff”. But the point is that he is in the game, always willing and able to help the President and the nation, and this cannot but help his potential, and likely, candidacy for the Presidency in 2016.

Biden is a man of energy, who acts much younger than his age of 70, and should not be dismissed as the heir to Barack Obama in 2016!

Gun Supporters Joe Scarborough, Harry Reid, Joe Manchin, Mark Warner Have Second Thoughts

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In a sign of potential significance, we have seen in the past two days that a number of gun supporters, backers of the Second Amendment, finally realize that something needs to be done to promote regulation in the public interest.

This includes MORNING JOE host Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, former Florida Republican Congressman; and three Democrats–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.

But except for Scarborough, who has been out of office for a decade, the Republicans in Congress, particularly in the Senate, have remained silent, as has the leadership of the National Rifle Association, which makes too much money out of being in the leadership, to have the guts and the ethics and morality to recognize that they are wrong, and that there needs to be regulation to prevent future Sandy Hook Massacres.

So the Republican Party is again on the wrong side of another issue, and this just makes them move closer to extinction as a major party with a chance to hold national power in the White House and in the US Senate, and only able to keep the House of Representatives by gerrymandering of Republican state legislatures!

The Presentation Of Future Democratic Presidential Possibilities At The Democratic National Convention

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Tonight, as the Democratic National Convention opens in Charlotte, North Carolina, we are seeing the presentation of future Presidential possibilities, giving them a chance to be noticed and judged by political observers and fellow Democrats.

Among those speaking are Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker; San Antonio, Texas Mayor Julian Castro, who is giving the keynote address; and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.

Also speaking are former Florida Congressman Robert Wexler; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; Independent Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican; Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Chief of Staff to President Obama; Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; Lilly Ledbetter, the woman who is mentioned as the name on the Equal Pay Act for women; the brother of Michelle Obama and the sister of President Obama; and finally, the distinguished First Lady herself!

It will be an exciting evening for Democrats, and Independents alike!

Wing Nuts Of 2010, And Now Of 2012–Lost Republican Opportunities In The Senate Then, And Possibly, Now!

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The Republican Party is infamous for running wing nuts for the Senate, and as a result, lost the chance for control of the US Senate in 2010.

They ran such characters as Christine O’Donnell in Delaware; Ken Buck in Colorado; Sharron Angle in Nevada; and Joe Miller in Alaska.

The first three were so whacky that the Democrats held on to the seats, and kept control of the Senate, with Harry Reid of Nevada remaining Senate Majority Leader. Lisa Murkowski won a miraculous victory in Alaska over Tea Party favored Joe Miller, keeping that seat sane and sensible, while Republican.

At the same time, Rand Paul and Mike Lee won in Kentucky and Utah, respectively, and Marco Rubio was also backed by the Tea Party, and now Paul and Rubio are likely leaders of the party in the near future, no matter how right wing they are!

Now we have in 2012 the following: Ted Cruz in Texas, backed by the Tea Party and likely to win a Senate seat; Debbie Fischer in Nebraska, who faces former Democratic Senator and Presidential seeker Bob Kerrey, who faces a tough battle; Richard Murdock, who defeated respectable conservative Richard Lugar in Indiana; and now, Todd Akin, challenging Senator Claire McCaskell in Missouri.

With the likelihood of Cruz, Fischer, and Murdock victories for the Tea Party and the right wing of the social conservatives, the only thing that may stop GOP control of the US Senate is the Todd Akin controversy, but in theory, Akin could win that race too, and with only three or four seats gain needed to win control of the Senate for the Republicans, the future makeup of the Senate is disturbing!

It should be pointed out that the Texas and Indiana seats coming up for election are already GOP seats, so only Nebraska and maybe Missouri would be gains for the Tea Party element as things stand now! But going from Kay Bailey Hutchison and Richard Lugar to Ted Cruz and Richard Murdock is a major step backward toward further deadlock, confrontation, and paralysis in a Senate already with a terrible reputation