Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday that the Senate doesn’t work for Barack Obama.
Reid, who lambasted the GOP-led Congress for being a rubber stamp for President Bush, indicated that he will not bow to the Obama administration.
Reid stated, “I don’t believe in the executive power trumping everything… I believe in our Constitution, three separate but equal branches of government.â€
“If Obama steps over the bounds, I will tell him. … I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him,†he said.
In December, Vice President Dick Cheney said President-elect Obama will “appreciate†the expansion of the executive branch’s power over the last eight years. During an interview on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, Cheney predicted that Obama will not cede that authority back to Congress.
While Cheney has been a regular at the Senate GOP policy lunches over the past eight years, Reid recently said Vice President-elect Biden will not be allowed to sit in while Democrats discuss legislative strategies over lunch. The move is part of Reid’s attempt to separate the executive and legislative branches, which moved in unison between 2001 and 2006.
This is as it should be, and I hope Reid means it. That said, he and Nancy Pelosi are not the strongest leaders Congress ever had, and I don’t expect them to rebel all that much. My greatest hope is that Barack Obama appreciates the separation of power also and doesn’t try to trample all over them the way the Bushies did.
Meanwhile, demonstrating an “utterly cavalier lack of knowledge about the actual principles on which the country was founded” (Michael Tomasky’s description of Sarah Palin), MacRanger jeers at Reid for “pissing Obama off.” Stupid is as stupid blogs.
“he and Nancy Pelosi are not the strongest leaders Congress ever had”, is a rather significant understatement. He and Nancy Pelosi may well be the weakest leaders Congress has ever had. Both appear to suffer from the Stockholm Syndrome and despite the best efforts of the citizens of this country to turn things around, I think that Reid and Pelosi will prove to be bigger obstacles to progress than the tattered remains of the GOP. Obama may well be forced to come up with a Congress packing scheme ala FDR’s Court packing scheme before all is said and done. Thankfully, Reid will probably be out of the Senate in 2 years.
Both [Reid and Pelosi] appear to suffer from the Stockholm Syndrome….
Excellent.
Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are like two tiny, orphaned kittens that were nursed by a toddler-eating pit bull, and when grown, decided to pick pointless fights with all the tough, scarred cats in the alley.
OK, maybe that’s a little too Lloyd Webber-meets-Eliot, but you get my drift. It would be amusing to watch them both flail away at shadows, if they were merely an annoyance. But meanwhile, the pit bulls continue to devour toddlers.
Macranger does get one thing right though: nice fucking timing, Reid, for you to suddenly remember that the congress isn’t the president’s legislation-writer.
Based on their past performances, I agree with terry that they may prove to be impediments to Obama.
Obama may end up appreciating those signing-statement things, however, given that a ‘scheme’ to pack Congress sounds next to impossible to come up with.
I like Reid’s words and if it was anyone but Reid uttering them I’d take them at face value.
Hey. A couple days ago I sent Sen. Reid an e-mail asking him to resign his leadership position for the good of the party and country. Maybe a couple hundred thousand more of those e-mails would impress him
Indeed, Reid and Pelosi are the most embarassingly stupid and inept leaders of my party I’ve ever seen.
It would be worth having one fewer Dem Senator after 2010 if defeating him for re-election was the only way to get rid of Reid as Majority Leader.
I agree with Bruce. Reid stands out as the most milk toast wormy senator in memory, much less the senate leader. Did anyone hear him today talk about Burris? He stopped just short of a Bill O’Reily like statement (he’s a pretty well behaved for a black man). What a tool, now he stands up and says he don’t work for Obama, well bu$hco sure got everything he wanted from Reid. The man just has no authoritative presence, he reminds me of a substitute teacher who just loads up the filmstrip and sits quietly in the corner hoping the time passes without incidence.
He reminds me of a substitute teacher who just loads up the filmstrip and sits quietly in the corner hoping the time passes without incidence.
Doesn’t he though?
Last year, as the Dem primaries sifted the candidates down to Those Two, I heard some talk about Chris Dodd maybe replacing Reid. I suppose that was, like nearly everything else in 2008, just talk. *sigh*
Wow, it took a long time for Reid’s testicles to descend.I guess he’ll be much more vocal, now that Big Dick is out of the picture.
I believe that neither Reid or Pelosi will win their next elections.
I like Reid and Pelosi both. I think their hearts are in the right place, but they didn’t have what it took for a variety of reasons to counter the GOP juggernaut of mindless adhesion to the party line, and of the right wing’s domination of the media. I like to think that Reid and Pelosi didn’t shine like they could have because they we’re faced with an extremely formidable political opposition who held every advantage..
Now that the GOP choke hold has been broken. and the numerical balance shifted, I expect a better performance from Reid and Pelosi.
I agree with most previous comments… Reid and Pelosi didn’t look competent in the past…Probably because their lips and their good intentions got ahead of their ability to deliver.
Now that is balanced, and I agree, considering your recent remarks to the effect that Reid is tone-deaf with regard to political theatre, which I also agreed with.
I really regretted his having made certain remarks about Obama’s likely successor Burris. Dems can’t afford weekly retractions, mis-steps and course reversals by their house majority leader. No doubt he’s a good person with his heart in the right place. He seems to be at the whim of day-to-day circumstances or not in the loop as opposed to being a badly needed force for ensuring that congressional dems speak with one voice (as opposed to issuing commands to a herd of cats).
On the other hand, maybe Obama needs to be “broken in” just a bit. Feinstein’s remarks on Panetta appointment were widely characterized as whining, another example of why consultations with Congress-persons is sometimes a much needed oil for political machinery.
To me, a little such chaos is much better than marching in lock-step, declaring one thing while meaning another. Not everyone, particularly rightees, will agree with that.
jamie, how does one send email to an out-of-state congress-person? If you put your true state the email link from their congressional web pages block sending of those emails. Must one lie about their state or is there another way to reach them?
…not criticizing, just curious. I’d be happy to add my $0.02 worth, maybe even a nickel’s worth…I am running a 2-for-1 special. LOL.
HMMMMM…OK,,,I certainly believe Reid works with Obama and not for him….But really? How can the man say such things given, as so many have pointed out, his track record?…Ok Ok ,we get it your not a rubber stamp…you don’t work for Obama…I just wonder when his gumby like status expired?..he has been the poster child for rubber stamps and now he declares he is not one? WTF? Identity crisis?. And if he doesn’t work for Obama, fine, but he damn sure worked hard at doing nothing for bush..what party is it old Harry is leading again?
Nothing personal against Sen.Reid…but watching him on the floor turns me into the petite female version of Sam Kinison….Oh. oh , ohhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
But it is really nice to know that bush plans to open his man purse and give Harry back his balls for a job well done…buy that man a pretzel!!!If Harry had been any kinder he might have been able to swing a few nights at the Blair house since the Obama family wasn’t allowed to use it and it IS empty until the 12th..maybe Georgie will invite harry to Crawford this summer to clear brush….that ought to make them even.
I do believe there should be NO rubber stamp in any branch of government I do hope Reid and Pelosi will pick their battles with great care. I do believe the American people spoke on election day in support of the new direction Obama offered to the nation..The American people , IMHO, want oversight of the choices Obama makes for our direction…I would hate to see Reid get in the way of moving the country forward so reids ego can be inflated.
Reid and the rest of both houses need to remember they DON’T work for Obama,,, they work for US..as our voice…We picked our leader and it IS reids job to see that the intent of our votes is heard..Not because Obama wants it, but because we voted for it.
I woulsd like to join in some kind of online petition for the removal of Harry Reid. Ten thousand names faulting him for gutlessness might embarrass him and might make him a little more scared os us than he is of Republicans or Beltway pundits.
Also pit bulls are considerably less likely to eat toddlers than shar peis, chow chows, dobies, rotties, GSD, akitas, or even Jack Russel Terriers ( a JET did kill a child in Seattle) or even Great Danes. The bad rap on pits is a classic case of media promoting narratives which are derived from race and class prejudice so that people who don’t buy the original narrative about the poor fall for the propaganda about the dog of the poor. This happened when the dog of the poor was the dobie and before that when the dog of the poor was the rottie. Sorry about the lecture but pit bulls suffer shamefully at the hands of humans. I’m a volunteer at a dog rescue shelter so I guess I’m touchy and humorless about this–I’ve just seen too much suffering.
But enough of the thread jack. I wish Harry Reid had more akita in his personality.
Pat Pattillo, I just went to his senate web page and sent a message. I didn’t get any indication it was rejected. On the other hand I didn’t get any rsponse either