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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

RNC Needs Secondary Campaign Slogan 'FIRE HARRY REID As Senate Majority Leader'

By Susan Duclos

In an earlier post it was mentioned that Republicans have a better than fair chance at taking control of the Senate in 2012, with 23 of the 33 Senate seats on the ballot in 2012 held by Democrats and according to CNN and seven out of ten "open"  seats are held by Democrats.

The presidential election is the focus of much scrutiny, as it should be and will continue to be the primary concern for Republicans who want to replace Obama with Mitt Romney, and Democrats that want Obama to win reelection.

Republicans also  have a secondary campaign to win control of the Senate, but I do not see them utilizing their best weapon to accomplish that goal.

Harry Reid.

From the earlier piece:

Republicans need to flip four seats to take control of the Senate. While these are local state races, it is helpful to Republicans that Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat, is one of the least popular members of Congress with 57 percent viewing him unfavorably and only 23 percent having a favorable view of him. The only member of Congress less popular than Reid is Democratic House Minority leader,Nancy Pelosi, with 63 percent viewing her unfavorably.

While Reid's seat is not being defended because he is not on the 2012 ballot, using his disapproval rating and lack of popularity as Senate Majority leader is an automatic must-do for Republicans, much like they did in 2012, using Nancy Pelosi's unpopularity in campaigns and removing her from the House Speaker position and handing control of the House to Republicans.

Voters may not be able to remove him from the Senate, but they can strip his Senate Majority leader status away.

In the 2010 campaign season, there were signs blasted across the Internet, headlines, banners hung on the RNC headquarters and a bus tour named "Fire Nancy Pelosi". Ads created which tied Pelosi to the Democratic House members who were up for reelection.

Republicans took full advantage of Pelosi dismal approval ratings and unpopularity, which many credit for a portion of the historical gains Republicans won in all levels of government, local and national, with the largest turnover of seats from Democratic to Republican seen in 70 years.

It is now 2012, Nancy Pelosi was removed from being House Speaker and is now House Minority leader and Republicans have control of the House of Representatives.

It is now time to "FIRE HARRY REID" as Senate Majority leader. The only person more unpopular in Congress is Nancy Pelosi with Harry Reid coming in a close second.


The end of April marked the three year anniversary since the Senate had passed a budget, despite the fact that the House passed theirs, the latest was in March 2012, and sent it to the Senate. Furthermore, Harry Reid has made it clear, multiple times, that he has no intention of passing a budget through the Senate, which he controls, in the foreseeable future.

Reid claims "it's done" because of previous stop-gap measures passed to prevent a government shutdown have been passed at the last minute and debt limit deals, neither of which replace an official budget.

Sunday, April 29, 2012, is an anniversary unprecedented in the history of American politics, marking three years since the Democratic-led Senate last complied with federal law by passing a budget.

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 stipulates that Congress must approve a budget resolution by April 15 of each year. In the Senate, only 51 votes are needed to pass a budget, as budgets are one of the few pieces of legislation invulnerable to a filibuster. Democrats currently control 53 seats.

 Emphasis mine.

As of January 2012, Harry Reid has stalled over 25 bills that would have added jobs to counter the high unemployment rate, bills that had bipartisan support in the House of Representatives.

Reid's control of the Senate "do-nothing-Dems" continues even today.

In March, an amendment to the $109 billion transportation bill, proposed by Senator John Hoeven, (R-N.D), which would have prevented Obama from intervening in decisions related to construction of the Keystone Pipeline  and would have sped up its approval, was killed in the Senate after Obama lobbied Senate Democrats to reject it. 11 Democrats broke ranks as voted for the amendment because Keystone has bipartisan support, not only in Congress but among major Democratic voting blocs.

The vote was 56 to42 against, falling four votes short of the required 60 for passage.

As Roll Call shows, Harry Reid voted against the amendment.

It is time to "FIRE HARRY REID" as Senate Majority leader and the only way to do that is to flip four Senate seats from Democrat to Republican.

Every television ad against vulnerable Senate Democrats in the 2012 Senate elections should tie those Dem Senators to Harry Reid, visually. Every Republican campaign talking point, in reference to the Senate elections, should remind voters that voting against the Democratic incumbent or voting Republican for an open seat which belongs to Democrats now, will fire Harry Reid as Senate Majority leader.

If the RNC and Senate Republican candidates play their cards correctly, then the sign below could be one we see the day after the November elections.




PS- Wouldn't hurt for Romney and the RNC to tie Obama relentlessly to Reid either.

(Additions made to this post and changed DNC to RNC above... ooops)