Like things haven't been tense enough in the Senate in the last few months, tense enough to bring it to a near standstill regarding getting anything passed at all, Harry "the mouth" Reid, once again has a temper tantrum and makes the statement "President Bush is the man that’s pulling the strings on the 49 puppets he has here.”
Today Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) wonders aloud if Reid is "up to the job" and accuses Reid of violating Senate Rules, specifically Rule 19, b-2 which states:
2. No Senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.
Watching C-Span 2 day after day, I would have to say, that Reid violates that rule almost every time he stands up and whines.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who's been known to get fired up in his own right, says Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) violated Senate rules yesterday when Reid said President Bush "is the man that's pulling the strings on the 49 puppets he has here in the Senate." Bush was blaming Senate Republicans for blocking an alternative minimum tax (AMT) package that also included some tax increases.
In there lies the problem, the Democratic politicians have not met a bill they haven't tried to sneak tax increases into and they know by attaching those tax increases the Republicans in the Senate are going to insist on the 60 vote rule aka filibuster.
Specter:
"I don't take it lightly and I don't think the other 48 of my colleagues take it lightly to be called 'puppets, "I really wonder if he [Reid] is up to the job when he resorts to that kind of statement which only furthers the level of rancor and animosity with that kind of insulting comment."
“It is my view that being called a puppet is in direct violation of that rule,” Specter said. “I don’t think there’s much doubt about it. That is a term of derision. That is a term of ridicule.”
In the meantime, if Reid thinks statements like that are going to lessen the tension and create a better atmosphere to find bipartisan solutions... he has another thing coming and Specter is right, Reid isn't up to the job of Senate Majority leader.
Reid makes these types of statements every time he doesn't get his way, he throws a temper tantrum (Click link, watch video of Reid admitting to one of his "little tantrums when he doesn't get his way"- and apologizing for it--Immigration issue), yanks bills, whines and basically acts like a two year old that cannot get his way.
Text of his admitting it:
REID: Mr. President, let me just say I'll just take a minute and the Senator from Texas can speak. I told the Senator from South Carolina that I was going to be making a unanimous consent request. I say to my friend from Texas what a difference a night makes.
As you know — as some know, not very many, Senator Cornyn and I, Senator Graham and a few others, we were trying to work something out on this border security and Senator Cornyn and I were the last two to speak on this issue.
And like a lot of things around here, if you don't get your way, you kind of throw a tantrum a lot of times, and I didn't get my way, so I thought I would throw just a little tantrum. And the evening has brought to my attention that I was wrong, and Senator Cornyn was right.
Is that really the way we expect the Senate Majority leader to act? Like a 2 yr old?
The Swamp:
The back and forth illustrates the tension now growing on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers who were hoping to leave Washington well in advance of Christmas remained deadlocked on the AMT, Iraq war funding and appropriations.
The appropriations bills still outstanding could be rolled into a single omnibus bill, or Congress could keep funding government with another continuing resolution. The Pentagon says it has enough money to keep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going until March.
But the AMT will ensnare some 25 million taxpayers next April if Congress doesn’t act. And the Internal Revenue Service has warned that failure to address it now could delay the processing of tax returns, and the mailing of refund checks.
Both sides want to fix the AMT, which was never intended for the middle class families who now fall within its limits. But congressional Democrats want to replace the lost revenue with tax increases in other areas, while President Bush and his Republican allies in the Senate oppose any tax increase.
[...]
Specter says the inability of the sides to come to an agreement doesn’t make GOP senators puppets. He listed issues on which they have defied the White House: embryonic stem cell research, the Water Resources Development Act, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill.
“When the majority leader makes a proposal and asks for Republican assistance, many of us have been willing to listen to what he has to say,” Specter said. “But he doesn’t improve his case when he starts calling us puppets.
“I really wonder if he’s up to the job.”
Note to Reid: The rules are there to be used and the filibuster rule is there to stop morons like you from steamrolling things that we don't want... higher taxes being one of them.
The Republicans are using the rules of Senate to do what their constituents want and if you don't like that or cannot handle that like an adult, then step down and let someone that understands what working in a bipartisan manner entails, step up, so something can actually get accomplished.
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