We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House which apparently are closing in on an agreement, but one thing is clear, Harry Reid has become a sideshow.
The master of the Senate was left to denouncing Mitch McConnell as, basically, a liar for saying an agreement was close and there had been progresss, only hours later to announce that a vote on Reid’s futile bill would be postponed for 12 hours at the request of the White House. Reid was left looking like the only guy in the room who didn’t know.
McConnell went around Reid, as had John Boehner, and there was nothing Reid could do about it.
Whatever else these negotiations yield, the end of Harry Reid as we know it is one positive outcome.
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Harry Reid was never anything more than Obama’s errand boy in this farce.
Being from Nevada, I wish that was the case, but I don’t think so.
Reid is just a hand puppet. He is not very bright, cannot reason, and basically is a very useful idiot to Schumer, Durbin & Obama. You simply wind him up and he will spew forth whatever he was programmed. Just feed his ego a few breadcrumbs and he will spout off anything regardless of how absurd it may sound. He likes being top dog, but this is truly a case of others leading him from behind.
Schumer, Pelosi, Obama only have to tell him what a great job he did, and he be ready to go forth with the next inane statement bashing Republicans.
He is simply a very dim bulb that is already starting to flicker.
Evil mendacity is on display every time Reid speaks. He will continue to have the podium and TV time until he is bounced as speaker as a result of the 2012 elections.
Harry Reid is a small man in the Truman sense of small.
Such a man holds a grudge, and can be a dangerous “ally” to have in your camp.
Sorry, ThomasD, but Reid has always thought he had more power than even the Oval Office. Yesterday, he learned just how unimportant he really is when Senate Republicans went around him with the Oval Office.
Also, yesterday, as Reid was on the floor of the Senate saying he would accept a vote on his bill if it was a simply majority, not the standard 60 required in bills of this importance, Mitch McConnell had the Reid bill, under a Congressman’s name, voted on in the House of Representative. Reid had claimed it was the only bill that could pass both Houses, but was shot down and while Boehner held his Republicans together, Pelosi lost eleven Democrats who voted “nay” on the Reid bill. Reid also said that he and Pelosi had been in meetings with the President, and they were [paraphrasing] not very productive.
Gallup reported Obama’s approval rating at 40%. This is a crisis that Obama wanted to be able to increase the debt ceiling, at first demanding a “clean” bill that did that. Now he is seeing that Americans are laying this directly at his feet, and if we do default, he will be held responsible for that default. Using the fear faction, Obama held a meeting last week with Veterans, telling them he could not promise they would be paid next month or have their medical benefits. One veteran got up and ask “Where’s your plan?” which prompted Obama to end the meeting. That was the same question asked in a very contentious meeting between reporters and Jay Carney last Thursday.
The Reid bill would have “deemed” the budgets for both 2012 and 2013 passed, as was outline very clearly by Senator Jeff Sessions. This would have allowed the Democrats to get through the 2012 election cycle without having to address the budgets, a losing proposition for Democrats.
This whole Kubuki dance shows how disfuntional our government has become. Our elected officials have become nothing more than Monopoly players using our money. And even the agreement that seems to be in the works does nothing but kick the can further down the road. We will be almost $17 trillion in debt with future cuts that this Congress cannot bind future Congresses to.
“The End of Harry Reid as We Know It.” Which end? It’s impossible to tell which one he talks out of.
Luke Russert:
“House Tea Party & Progressive sources both tell me they have huge problems w supposed #debt deal. Going to be an interesting march to 216.”
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[…] for Boehner’s bill?If this deal does go through, the biggest loser will be Harry Reid, as Professor William Jacobson says: “We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House […]
“Harry Reid has become a sideshow”
Become?
[…] Reid appears to be “Pelosied”. Professor William Jacobsen at his blog, Legal Insurrection, opines: We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House […]
[…] Professor William Jacobson: “We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House […]
McConnell was going right around Harry, negotiating the Republican Senate position with the White House.
And much like the proverbial “cold day in Hell” there was poor pathetic Harry was standing outside, all alone in the July cold, with a firm, angry grip on his . . . talking points from the day before!
Well, as many have said repeatedly in a zillion or so other contexts, the devil is in the details . . . that is what counts!
What exactly are the $1 trillion in cuts that the White House has agreed to, and over how long a period of time?
Have they all agreed on the wording to the Balanced Budget Amendment they are talking about?
What is the understanding regarding the anticipated adoption process? Will it consist of the two houses taking votes on resolutions urging the states to adopt it? Or, will the two houses of Congress agree to take actual votes for congressional adoption now?
And, as I posted above on a prior thread here at LI:
Under the bus. I predicted it two weeks ago. But the bus is getting smaller.
[…] we get closer to a debt ceiling deal, It appears Harry Reid was not only pushed aside but but shoved right under the moving bus straight into insignificancy. The master of the Senate […]
[…] this deal does go through, the biggest loser will be Harry Reid, as Professor William Jacobson says: “We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House […]
[…] thinking people are hoping for the end of Harry Reid. I don’t have words to express what a turd this guy is. Pelosi was horrible, but Reid is at […]
[…] Number 8: (If I keep going on this list, I may overcome my dismay!) The end of Harry Reid as we know it We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House […]
If only this were true. Hopefully, come 2015, we’ll have >60 Republican Senators and he’ll be irrelevent – like Pelosi is now.