Harry Reid Abandons Filibuster Reform

[rugcat]

After blasting Republicans for many month over obstructionism and abuse of the filibuster and loudly and publicly stating his intention to reform the filibuster rules so that it would no longer take a super-majority of 60 votes to pass legislation, Harry Reid decided it was just fine after all.

This move on his part will no doubt prevent many, if not most, of the president's goals from being enacted.

What a worthless piece of crap this man is.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...-joke-20130124

[nighttimer]

Harry Reid is a gutless turd who waves the white flag before the battle begins.

When the Republicans take over the Senate in 2014 I sincerely hope the Democrats remove this impotent little toad from his "leadership" position. I am weary of Reid's spineless capitulation.

After Mitch McConnell becomes Senate Majority Leader maybe he'll take the dog collar off of Reid.

[Opty]

Yeah, I lost what little respect I had for him. He's been talking for over a year about getting this done and he caves with a hand shake.

Worthless.

[WillSauger]

Originally Posted by Opty

Yeah, I lost what little respect I had for him. He's been talking for over a year about getting this done and he caves with a hand shake.

Worthless.

Ditto. And he's even from my state!

[nighttimer]

Tom Harkin reads the tea leaves and sees four more years of frustration for both the president and himself.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin has been backing filibuster reform packages for most of his Senate career. A group of reporters stopped him today on his way into the caucus meeting where the party will be told the virtues of what Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell agreed on. Harkin fluttered open his binder, pulled out the new rules, and read them slowly, grimly. "They're baby, baby steps," he said. He'd wanted the Democrats to go ahead and change the Senate rules with 51 votes, and Reid had forestalled that.

Harkin's been telling progressive radio and TV hosts a story about his pre-election advice to the president. He repeated it outside this meeting. "I said to him," said Harkin, "the night before the election: Look, you get re-elected, if we don't do something significant on filibuster reform, you might as well take a four-year vacation."

Bloomberg's Jim Rowley asked the obvious follow-up: Should Obama go on vacation?

"He can go out and give wonderful speeches, things like that," said Harkin. "But with the House in the hands it's in, and the fact that the Senate, now, you have to have 60 votes to pass anything... well, I daresay that Obama's package, his very aggressive proposals, will not get very far. They'll be so watered down that they won't be recognizable."

[LOG]

And they say the Republicans are conservatives.

There are all sorts of issues with the government system in America, and, in my view, a good bit of them exist because of archaic ideas.
Like the judicial system's apparent immunity to check-and-balance, especially nowadays with longer lives.
Or this first past the post voting process that practically guaranteed we'd end up with a dichotomic party system.
And, as has been brought up recently I believe (or maybe it was a different forum I visit), the US constitution in general is seen as out-of-date compared to other democratic systems.

I'd like to see some major changes to some of the fundamental constructs of the government.
Humble, I know.

[Shadow Dragon]

Sadly, Harry Reid represents a major problem with the democrats as a whole. They'll talk a big game, but when it comes time to actually fight the republicans on an issue, they back down. It's a group of people are are too scared of being labelled partisan, too scared of the Republican attack dogs, who play not to lose rather than play to win, who refuses to truly take a stand for the things that they'd promise they'd fight against, vs the party run by idealogues who laugh at the concept of compromise for the greater good, who's idea of bipartisan ship is getting the other party to do everything they want or shutting down the government, who decides that their morality trumps other people's rights, who's number one goal is to paint the other party as anti-American as possible*. Until the Dems grow a collective spine, expect more of the same, even if they do replace Reid.

*Ahem, run on sentences for the win.