Posts
I've been ragging on Harry Reid quite a bit as of late and so have many others in blog-land, with good reason. As the top leader of the majority party in the Senate, Reid is a failure and has been since he took the spot.
As kos notes..
If Republicans knew what was good for their continued obstructionism efforts, they'd give Reid a reelection pass.
A few more details for you.
Harry Reid has been exceptionally ineffective as the Democrats' majority leader.
The number of cloture votes skyrocketed in the 110th Congress following the Democratic takeover of the Senate and Reid's assumption of the majority leader position. The Senate voted on 112 cloture motions in the 110th, exactly double the number (56) of cloture votes in the 109th Congress, and two-and-a-half times as many as the average number of cloture votes (44) over the previous nine Congresses. Of these cloture motions, 51 were rejected (meaning that opponents of a bill succeeded in blocking an up-or-down vote) and 61 were passed.There are basically two mechanisms that a majority leader can employ to limit filibusters: firstly, he can threaten to block votes on certain of the opposition party's legislation (or alternatively, present carrots to them for allowing a vote to proceed), and secondly, he can publicly shame them. Reid managed to do neither, and the Senate Republicans did fairly well for themselves considering that they were in a minority and were burdened by a President with negative political capital.
I don't imagine the culture of the Senate changing in the new Congress so long as it's under Reid's direction, and Reid is highly unlikely to be replaced. There is some chance, however, that Obama rather than Reid will dictate the tone, particularly if Joe Biden is dispatched to Capitol Hill fairly often.
Maybe we can get Joe Biden to take dear old Harry out to the wood shed for some disciplinary action.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment