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Just hopped off a conference call where Harry Reid said the words “work together” about 154 times. The news hook is that the leadership, including Reid, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin and Bob Menendez, were asked on the call if they supported Reid for Majority Leader, and Schumer and Durbin said simultaneously “Absolutely!” So he’s the Leader, contrary to a couple reports out there.
As I said, the rest was just a recitation of wanting to work together. Reid said, “I look forward to working with new members to find shared solutions to shared problems.” Durbin said, “The lesson of the election is that we need to work together. Playing to a draw in Senate is not acceptable.” Schumer said, “We have to create good jobs and find common ground.” I don’t have a Menendez quote, he was too busy bragging about losing only six Senate seats (at the moment).
Reid and Schumer did put the election into perspective. “The election was tough on all sides, but it’s nothing like what families are facing,” said Reid. “The middle class is hurting,” Schumer added, noting that median income declined over the last decade. “If the pie stops growing we don’t have the America we know, and nobody wants that.”
But as for the specifics, it’s all about, say it with me, “working together.” Someone asked about the defense authorization bill. “It takes a while to get a defense bill done, but if we work together and get some time agreements on amendments, we can do it,” Reid said. Someone mentioned that Mitch McConnell didn’t sound like he wanted to compromise. Reid said he talked to him in the past hour and that the parties are “going to work well together.” Reid said that the Congress has not been difficult (?) but that there has been no input from Republicans. “We should be willing to work with you, you should be willing to work with us, it’s not a one-way street.” Asked why Reid thinks Republicans will work with Democrats when they didn’t before and were rewarded, he said, “I can’t imagine that will continue. They’ve already been identified as the party of No.”
Reid closed with the idea that the ball is in the Republican’s court. “If they aren’t willing to work with us, there’s nothing we can do about that.”
It’s going to be a fun two years.
Postscript: Reid did say categorically that extending the Bush tax cuts permanently, at a cost of $4 trillion dollars, “won’t happen.”
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Someday I hope someone can explain to me how the leadership of a party that got its head handed to it by the electorate has the balls to go out in public and state that no change in that leadership is needed.
I guess this is the same twisted world view that keeps Wall Street bankers in place after they obliterate the world economy. Or that keeps military commanders in place that can’t find a winning strategy with both hands and a flashlight. Or leaves federal prosecutors in place after they have demonstrated a propensity to use their office to manipulate electoral prospects/outcomes. Or tolerates war criminals on the appellate bench.
Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that looking forward apparently means never having to say you’re sorry.
Unsurprising but PATHETIC. Spare me the details. Corporate tool remains corporate tool. Waste of time and breath.
Thanks for the great reporting David. I don’t know how you dragged yourself out of bed at 6AM.
Reid should have been replaced as Majority Leader in 2008.
About the only thing we can do now is bind him to the mast and make sure he goes down with the ship.
If the Senate Democrats want a chance at survival, not to mention relevancy, in 2012, they need to mount a leadership challenge to Reid immediately.
The Republicans aren’t interested in bi-partisanship, and even if they find it useful, they won’t give credit for it. They want to accomplish their agenda and make the Democrats appear as obstructionist as they actually are impotent.
The Republicans need to be seen as effective. Their base won’t care but the super-majority they hope to build for 2012 will. They will get credit for the continuing recovery of the economy by passing shill bills with fancy names that are nothing more than raw agenda. This will give them the whip hand almost immediately.
If Obama becomes confrontational, he is obstructionist. If he is conciliatory, he alienates what is left of his base. Either way, 2012 is a bloodbath. A primary challenge is dangerous and unlikely to succeed. Feingold knows this.
2012 is hanging by a thread. I did not think Obama could be one-termed but unless the web the Republicans are spinning gets shredded before it hits Obama’s desk, we are looking at a Republican President a whole lot smarter than Bush ’43.
The game will be lost or won in the Senate. That assumes the Republicans can control the Tea Party. Judging from the way that Rand Paul shut his mouth after McConnell told him to, I don’t think that will be a problem. For the time being, Rubio will be content to be a good soldier.
We need an ambitious, fearless thug for Majority Leader.
This sounds like a job for ……. Schumer.
Hmmm, no Harry the lesson of the election is that you’re such an ineffectual tool that you only narrowly defeated a raving psychotic.
I need to get 4 more buckets of horse shit from my neighbor to throw at my puter screen when I read posts like this. Ds are sooo pathetic.
But “working together” he’ll find a way to extend most of them for $3 trillion, which will be partially offset by cuts in social security.
Schumer is a Wall St tool. That’s all he is.
Oh God. What an embarassment. I’d rather have the crazylady.
… and of course the filibuster is still sacrosanct…
Chuck “We just can’t let AIG go under!” Schumer, Democrat of New York.
That is why he can be effective.
As a New Yawker, I can’t wait for the 2012s when Bloomberg is billed as The Great White Hope. People were already talking about it yesterday.
Bloomberg will be fine if you want 40-story+ apt buildings all over the place and the education system dismantled.
Effective at making the rich richer & the poor poorer?
The kids will all be illiterate but they won’t smoke or eat junk food. Michael wants to keep the peasants healthy.
Makes one pine for the days of Nelson Rockefeller, almost.
Harry “bend over” Reid
“Obama signals compromise with GOP on tax cuts
[...]
Obama ruefully called the Republican victories “a shellacking” and acknowledged that his own connection with the public had frayed.”
Aw, shucks. Can not believe what a little douche this guy is. Nauseating.
That would be Nanny Mike.
Guessing healthy peasants means you get more work outta them.
… notice how the corporate shills invariably revert to gopish talking points… garbage like “We need a strongman daddy-type to survive!”
Humans are primates who need alpha males. You can’t put a modern govt on an evolutionary animal.
Harry: We must work together for the good of the American people.
Mitch: Bend over, Harry, and grab your ankles.
Remember there used to be a cartoon character, the “Tazmanian Devil.” Weird little creature, pure batshit crazy.
That’s the picture I imagine when I hear “Republicans,” and I sure don’t want to “work together” with them.
I think Obama & Friends are about 1 election, and one election slogan behind. yes, once there was a desire to “end the partisan bickering” and get things done. This, of course, was floated by the party almost solely responsible for the partisan bickering. It [Republicans] played both sides of the coin: partisan bickering prevented things from getting through, but as soon as the Charlie Brown-led Democrats tried to “work together,” the Repub grabbed the football or otherwise made “progress” impossible.
What was needed at the time — as was needed in 2008 — is some good old fashioned “partisan bickering,” or at least the calling out of Republicans and their selfish, vicious attitudes. Make them own it. Make them filibuster against the good stuff. Quit acting so nice and being afraid of being called “partisan.” Sheesh, do you think the Republicans are such pussies?
Look Harry, the only reason you won the mid-term was because you were not Angle. I’m betting a crucial fraction of those votes were not “for you”.
And I no longer believe anything you say, so there.
( As to that, There Will be Cuts, so go ahead and get on with the spineless squirming regarding the semantics of “permanent”. )
Need is an overstatement, nobody needs alpha males. Been reading the ‘Fountainhead’ lately?
Nope, that’s why they continually kick the Dems’ ass.
Since Obama has decided to follow Japan’s lead in adopting economic policies that lead to a jobless “recovery” and a lost decade, I kinda wish he adopted another Japanese tradition and resign after epic failure. But I suppose his admiration of the Japanese only goes so far…
Menendez had his fingers crossed?
‘Need’ is NO overstatement within the context of evolution. It is impossible to escape the slowness of evolution. There are plenty of variations on the theme of alpha males. Authoritarians, for example, were 18% of the sample of 20th C leaders, while democrats were 47%. Democrats show milder alpha male characteristics than other categories of leaders, but their alpha male character as a statistical regularity cannot be denied. Read my intro at the link in 20 for the argument.
Sometimes the same words have different meanings to different people.
For instance, “work together.”
For Democrats this means “Give the other side what they want.”
For Republicans this means, “Do exactly what we say or we will throw an tantrum and blame the resulting mess on you.”
In the end, both parties want to “work together.” Obama told me so.
BTW transpariat, Fountainhead is a shallow silly book of fiction about one unbelievable character. King of the Mountain is a study of all leaders of all countries in the 20th C so its statistical conclusions are quite robust.
It’s the best system corporate money has bought and owns.
And they own it all, top to bottom, each and every elected offal.
I am getting extremely dizzy.
btw, King of the Mountain is an excellent book.
Oh, that tradition.
Poo Flinger!
*G*
I have a full bag of steer manure I’m trying to save to turn our little 2′ x 12′ patch with and plant some winter stuff. Im TRYIN to stay out of it . . . .
*G*
And his girlfiend.
It’s a tempest in a teapot, humans are a young race. 200 years ago we were deuling with swords, some still are.
That doesn’t necessarily reveal jack re: our essential nature, just means we’re still pretty primitive. I would say politicians are the scumbags they are because only scumbags want the job, for scumbag reasons of their own. Who’s alpha then?
; )
Cripes, a hundred years ago women couldn’t vote!
I know I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, the heroes of the current GOP, believe that there is no room for differences of opinion. People either agree with you or they are the enemy and they deserve to be destroyed, no compromises allowed. Compromise is a sign of weakness that is unacceptable in your people and to be despised in the other side.
The Concept of the Political, a very small and very scary book.
The last thing I want to hear from Harry Reid is how much his looking forward to working with Republicans.
Harry Reid need to start apologizing to a bunch of Democrats and start kissing some Donkey asses.
I’m tired of having Democratic Party leader in the Senate who is constantly wiping elephant shit off his face.
I’m down with that action. Lincoln’s loss is rather delicious, and Feingold’s.
When the pie is growing, you can convince people that they can prosper while the wealthy make obscene amounts of money. When the pie stops growing, the central question in government becomes redistribution. And they really don’t want that.
I used the horse shit to fertilize some tall grass planted in what is basically gravel along one side of the garage. Shortly after I applied it, the drought ended. The grass did really well (5′) but I’ll never know if it was the manure or the rain.
Poo flinging is a basic human instinct that, to my knowledge I never indulged in at the age appropriate time. Leaves me nostalgic for my omission today when pols would make such good targets.
*g* back atcha.
Leo Strauss learnt a lot from both White and Black Russians. The original neocon hisself.
Sadly, he’s been a great teacher and leader for decades now . . . despite his death in the late 70′s, his role in Neo Con politics continues to inspire.
He is an ambitious Democrat. His fortunes are tied to the Democrats. He knows that if the Democrats are smashed in 2012, it will hurt his down-the-road plans.
But, most importantly, his best friend is himself. He is #3 now but he expects to move up. For the time being, allegiance to Harry Reid is the best way to accomplish that but, in light of last night’s landslide, he is already reassessing that position.
The Republicans attack him at their own peril. They both serve the same masters.
It is in his interest to prevent the Democrats from being too embarrassed but neither can he afford to alienate Wall Street. He will use parliamentary procedure to block the tactics that are designed to destroy the residual faith that the Democratic base still has for the surviving Democratic politicians. Opposition to the Republican agenda has to be accomplished in a way that will give the Democrats(and Obama) some cover.
Finreg will be sacrificed. It will be hollowed out and sent to Obama’s desk as a prevention to further job losses measure. Reid might oppose this but Schumer will not. But, by the time the bill is ready to be signed, everyone will seem to be reasonable.
I would prefer Feingold in 2012 but that won’t happen. Unless there is a quantum shift in political dynamics, Obama will be the nominee simply because he is the incumbent. He needs a protector if he is to win in 2012. The alternative is a Republican.
Send a thug to stop a thug.
A HS classmate of mine was a philosophy major at U.Chicago & took Leo Strauss’s course. He (my classmate) relates two matters that I find interesting: Strauss is widely misabused (ha, just coined a word), in the sense of not being interpreted properly by the neocons. (I believe him but so what.) Second, Strauss had a cultlike following. Now THERE’s the real Leo Strauss; no matter what he really really stood for, the cult determined how he would be used.
Harry Reid will ensure that Republican Tax Cuts for the rich are one of the first issues on the agenda.
Like he did with Retroactive Immunity for the telecoms, Harry Reid will do legislative jiu jitsu to get tax cuts passed for the rich.
All systems go. Democrats are proponents of “The Private Sector” and “Trickle Down”.
Only the Private Sector can create jobs. The Government cannot. Tax Cuts for the rich stimulate the economy and create jobs.
In spite of 40 years of Miton Freidman economics which have failed the common citizen, Democrats cling to these failed beliefs because that’s waht they’re paid to do.
Republican or Republican-lite? Harry Reid sucks.
Schumer is a ‘raise the drawbridge’ guy, i.e. a highly exaggerated sense of his own importance. (I’ll explain the joke of which I’ve included the punchline if you care about the ref.)
I’ve been told that he has prez ambitions to which I ROTFLMAO. Has anyone ever listened to his voice? Cannot be elected. Deep south accent OK, New Yawker, never. New Yawk is prolly the most hated area of the country.
So I see no upside in putting in a thug (your word which I wouldn’t disgree with) into a position of power, when ALL he’ll do is butter his own bread.
My guess is that the lower-level cuts plus a single unemployment extension will be the compromise for a two-year extension of the upper-level cuts.
Agree completely with the idea Neocons wrote their own version of Straussian ideals. But, they DID tap into him, and deeply. Your former classmate is/was spot on.
Willingly or not, Strauss had a lot of followers that have been around forever it seems. Their names are found among the ranks of the League Of Foreign Nations members, PNAC and its founding document, Bildeberg Society and many, many more that own, control and manipulate the wealth of our labors.
Strauss to the Neocons is akin to what Jesus of Nazerath is to the Xtian Born Again’s.
Cherrypicked.
Time for dinner making . . . thanks Pups for the chattage . . .
My classmate would use more moderate language, but the sentiment is the same.
My fave anecdote: Strauss’s class met at 8am. He spoke in a very soft voice. So students would like up outside the classroom door long before 8a, so they could get the front row seats so they could hear Strauss.
How uncollege is that?
I’ve asked my friend several times why Strauss developed his cult. That anecdote is the closest he’s come to ‘splaining it to me. I’m still completely in the dark, since I never met anyone who earned my respect enough to take his opinion seriously for longer than when I find the first big flaw in it.
That would be ‘line up’ not ‘like up.’
Geez, wishing edit were functioning. Mostly I don’t correct my typos since edit was trashed in the recent FDL transition, but sometimes I feel that my meaning will be lost if I don’t make the correction.
Well,Well…I have written before that the best thing for us,progressives was for HReid to lose his Senate -re=-election cuz if he did not,he would remain speaker,And if you dislike the last 8-10yrs of spineless feeble leadership…well prepare yourselves for another 6-8 yrs of the same spineless feeble leadership.
Progressives are too accommodating…..& the political class knows this,it’s why HReid can remain Senate leader….This is the guy who didn’t see fit to have Senate rules change..like we had no idea the GOP were going to filibuster every piece of legislation.Take your cues,if your Senator is supporting HReid for Senate leadership…you might start thinking of withdrawing support for that Senator in the next election cuz that Senator clearly does not care about you & your families welfare.
and for those of you who think Rich deVos is a dickweed:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-mike-thomas-letters-110210-20101101,0,3030618.column
LOL — I would have gotten seriously busted by the mods had I referred to the other one ; )
What a joke.
Reid thinks, well, they all think they can now “force the Republicans” to “accept” responsibility for how things are going and “work together”.
What a bunch of DOPES. That assumes Republicans EVER accept responsibility and they EVER work together. Obama correctly and FINALLY pointed out that Republicans drove the car ditch – how did that work out? It would have been effective only if he said it EVERY DAY starting his very first day in office.
DeVos: “Keep your damned government hands off my taxpayer-provided sports arena!”
What the Rethugs really seem to hate is an alpha female:
Well said…what I see happening is that Obama & Reid are more preoccupied with preserving civility in the congress whereas the GOP are not.Americans gave Obama large majorities in both houses to change things,they did not & we see the results yesterday.
Somehow they are still in denial…maybe it’s the “Washington bubble” but the GOP aren’t messaging according to Washington.Democrats have some of the most ineffective leadership & don’t think Dems won’t repeat the same mistakes again.They have already started walking down that alley.
We’re regressing. Things were way more radical at the turn of the 20th century. In fact, the current era is a replay of that era. Difference is we have no radical left to make the elite shit their pants. Imagine a bunch of real leftists biting at OilyBombers ankles instead of the reich wing.
Forsake the Democrats! It is the only hope!
And Mitch McConnell is ready to “work together” as long as the goal is to make sure President Obama goes down in flames.
Can we fix the Senate rules now?
Well, on the bright side this assures Schumer and Durbin will remain popular back home.
Being Senate Majority “Leader” is an absolute curse in the Hall of Vicious Cats that is the U.S. Senate.
If Harry Reid lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, he be a Kapo.
I remember back prior to the mid-terms of 2006 when Democrats were in the minority in both the Senate and House, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were still in the White House, two wars were raging overseas (Iraq more so than Afghanistan), the criminal and heartless actions by the Bush administration during Hurricane Katrina were still fresh in people’s minds, BushCo neo-con Republicans were talking up attacking Iran…and Democratic Party leadership (including Nancy Pelosi) started saying culture of corruption in reference to the Republican Party.
Apparently culture of corruption was such a perfect description of the culture of corruption Republican Party that it struck a chord with enough voters that Democrats won control of the House and Senate. A short and simple catch-phrase, culture of corruption; a truthful, fact-based branding of the culture of corruption Republican Party by the Democratic Party; a simple meme stating that the Democratic Party was NOT part of this right-wing culture of corruption, NOT party to the culture of corruption party, headed by Bush and Cheney, that had been doing so much damage to our nation, even getting U.S. citizens killed.
But then this catchy catch-phrase was dropped. I don’t remember President Obama as a presidential candidate in 2008 ever using culture of corruption to describe the Republicans. Nor any of the other Democratic Party candidates, for that matter, using this phrase either two years ago. And this time around? I don’t remember seeing any quote in which a Democrat in the White House, or any Democratic candidates running for first-time office or reelection, using culture of corruption to describe the Republican Party.
Aaaah, such a waste of a perfectly good and perfectly true catch-phrase. If anything, since 2006 the Republican Party has become even more corrupt, lying and deceitful.
But it is also perfectly understandable why Democratic Party leaders and strategists (especially of the Blue Dog branch) dropped and stopped using culture of corruption to define, to brand the Republican Party in the minds of potential voters. Remember the first several months of 2007 after the Democrats gained back control of Congress? Remember Sen. Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi getting that bill to Bush’s desk for his signature that gave retroactive immunity to telecom companies complicit in the Bush administration’s illegal spying activities on U.S. citizens? Remember Speaker Pelosi taking impeachment of Bush and Cheney off the table, even after all the evidence of “high crimes and misdemeanors” having been committed?
Has the culture of corruption Republican Party changed? NO. Are they still as criminally dangerous to our democracy, to our Constitution, to the freedom of American citizens, as they were in 2006 and 2008? YES. And nothing will change in the next two years leading into the next elections as far as the culture of corruption Republican Party is concerned. Corruption is the middle name of the Republican Party and all the Republican Party politicians, strategists and corporate backers. The question is whether Democratic Party leaders will call them out again as they did four years ago (and mean it!!!), or will Democratic Party leaders remain silent, not pointing out the obvious, not starting an anti-corruption campaign against the culture of corruption Republican Party, not doing everything necessary to save our country from the culture of corruption Republicans. We’ll see. Otherwise, our nation is toast.
I hope harry has Long Term Care Insurance… It covers alzheimers.
It’s called “white male hubris.”
WAR (“defense”) BILL$ are Done in a TWINKLING! And if Reid says Bush tax cuts won’t happen, They’re GUARANTEED TO! Pullosi Punch’s OUT; Judy Reid should Be RELIEVED. Obamavilla-in FORECLOSURE: 2012.
“We’re regressing. Things were way more radical at the turn of the 20th century. In fact, the current era is a replay of that era. Difference is we have no radical left to make the elite shit their pants. Imagine a bunch of real leftists biting at OilyBombers ankles instead of the reich wing. ”
There will be more than us.
Things are progressing apace, seems to me.
Kampai!