GOP senators to chide Reid
Senate Republicans are preparing to take aim at Majority Leader Harry Reid over the August recess for being "all talk but no action" and helping drag the Democrat-led Congress' approval rating to a historic low, according to a document distributed to caucus members.
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, is meeting with members yesterday and today to disseminate a message critical of Democrats for endlessly debating the Iraq war, stalling judicial nominations and squandering time on at least 300 investigations of the Bush administration.
"We really ought to be asking why this Democrat leadership won't allow Congress to move forward on serious policy debates," Mr. Kyl said, when asked about the talking-points memorandum he is circulating.
"Americans have been disappointed by a majority leadership that stages one show debate after another, while the only consistent legislative work getting done is the renaming of post offices."
The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, criticizes Mr. Reid for letting legislative priorities languish, including the drop of the Defense Department budget authorization bill — which would have approved funds for equipment and troops' pay increases — after Republicans last week blocked an amendment that set a spring deadline for a pullout.
It highlights that only one of the Democrats' legislative priorities — a minimum-wage increase — became law in the 200 days since they took control of Congress, and that a recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that just 16 percent of voters approve of Congress' performance — well below President Bush's 38 percent rating.
The GOP has been unusually strong in their minority status in the Senate and this is just the latest in their pointing out Reid's weakness as well as GOP strength.
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Which brings me to something I saw the other day, something I have been mentioning for a while now, from Weekly Standard.
True, Bush and the Republicans aren't dominant. They're a minority, but an unusually effective one. One measure of this: At the end of 2007, there will be more American troops in Iraq than when Democrats took over Congress in January. Another: Democrats have momentum on no domestic issue, not even health care. A third: Senate Republicans last week defeated an amendment urging Bush not to pardon former White House aide Scooter Libby and won overwhelming passage of another that says terrorists jailed at Guantánamo shouldn't be transferred to U.S. soil.
The latest point we posted about in a previous piece showing exactly how McConnell outmaneuvered the Senate Democrats, which is happening more and more since the Democrats took the majority.
In an amazing turnaround though, now that the Democratic party holds the majority in both houses, the Republican party has not only energized but are showing how, in 6 months, not only have the Democratic leadership gotten lazy, they have gotten stupid to boot.
The example of this is in the excerpt I am now going to show you from Hugh Hewitt's piece today:After a couple of Republican amendments failed, Mitch McConnell took to the floor and offered his own amendment, which was a Sense of the Senate that Guantanamo detainees not be allowed released or moved to U.S. soil. To conservatives, this obviously makes sense. To liberals, especially California’s Dianne Feinstein, one of the chief proponents of the effort to close the detention center at Gitmo and relocate these detainees into the American justice system, especially when tagged onto a student loan and grant bill, you’d think this measure would go down in flames. Except a funny thing happened. The bill was titled in a way that you had to vote yes to vote no, and no to vote yes. The final vote was 94-3, officially putting the Senate on record as saying terrorist detainees shouldn’t be moved to the U.S. Before the Democrats, who clearly hadn’t read the amendment, realized they screwed up, the vote was recorded.
Back to the Weekly Standard piece:
But in Washington, Democrats are stymied, foiled, and frustrated. Republicans have hindered or obstructed them at almost every turn. Last week, Democrats and the media were excited that Reid got 56 votes, four short of the required 60, to impose cloture on an anti-Iraq war amendment, then pass it by a simple 50-vote majority. The assessment was Democrats were gaining, Republicans and Bush crumbling. But on the next cloture vote--on the Democrats' most highly touted effort to force troop withdrawals--they got only 52 votes.
Reid did such a good job in changing the minds of the wobbly Republicans that he LOST 4 votes by the end of his all night slumber party.
Well done Baghdad Reid...heh.
Republicans have an inadvertent ally on Iraq--Reid, as maladroit a Senate leader as we've seen in years. His tactic of calling an all-night Senate session stirred more guffaws than favorable press reviews. His wildly partisan and often false statements have tended to drive wavering Republicans to Bush's side, instead of luring them to vote with Democrats. And his decision to yank the defense authorization bill off the floor after the loss of cloture votes was widely viewed as peevish and counterproductive.
That IS a good point, Reid has helped the GOP more than he has weakened them. He has united them rather than separated them.
Are we really sure Reid isn't a GOP plant that has infiltrated the Democratic party to make them look bad and to increase the stigma they have held for years about being weak on National Security.
OMG.
ROVE DID IT!!!!
Ok, sorry, that was facetious.
But it almost seems that way every time Reid opens that big mouth of his.
One last point from the Weekly Standard that I found amusing:
A reflection of Democratic disarray occurred last week after Democratic senator Ken Salazar of Colorado proposed an amendment to the higher education bill opposing a Libby pardon. It needed 60 votes to pass, but it got only 47. Forty-nine senators voted against it.
McConnell was ready with a stinging response: an amendment attacking President Clinton for his pardons as he left office in 2001, including at least one linked to his wife, New York senator Hillary Clinton. Before the clerk could read the McConnell amendment, Senator Chuck Schumer, her New York colleague, spoke to Clinton and she hastily left the Senate floor.
After the reading, Reid halted proceedings for a quorum call, returning 15 minutes later with a deal. He'd "vitiate" the Libby vote, invoking a rare procedure to erase a roll call vote from Senate records, in exchange for McConnell's agreement to withdraw his amendment. McConnell agreed, and the vote was expunged, but not before Reid and Democrats were embarrassed one more time.
The GOP is proving to not only be effective, but smarter and more savvy than Reid can every hope to be.
Lets hope the Democrats are stupid enough to keep him in his majority leadership position because at this point, he is proving to be a conservatives gift from god.
Tracked back by:
If you really want to support the troops... from Right Truth...
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