The New York Times paints a disturbing picture of Senator Harry Reid’s view of President Bush:
Senator Reid sees the president as stubborn and uncompromising. To an extent, that’s certainly true. Senator Reid of course, has been just as inflexible as the president:
- He refused to compromise on an expansion of children’s health insurance, instead passing the same expansion twice–and having it vetoed twice. He now refuses to discuss an expansion, insisting that it must wait until 2009.
- On the Alternative Minimum Tax, Reid refused to allow a vote on a fix that did not include a tax increase until after Thanksgiving. The refusal of Reid and House leaders to budge will force delays in the tax refunds of millions of taxpayers.
- Reid has consistently refused to budge on Iraq–calling the war lost, and pushing for troop withdrawals regardless of the situation on the ground. When the president changed course–first implementing the surge, and then starting a drawdown once the surge had succeeded in tamping down violence–Reid was a constant drumbeat for retreat.
The New York Times reassures us that no bill was stalled because of Reid’s hatred for the president. The assertion is silly. There has been no expansion of SCHIP because Reid refused to allow consideration of a compromise–even though Senate sources are confident that there was a bipartisan majority for such a move. What other compromises might have been possible if not for Reid’s enmity toward the duly elected president of the United States?
Beyond this narrow point, is it healthy for our Democracy to have a leader in Reid’s position expressing such contempt for another? How can he manage the Senate when he holds such contempt for the minority? Further, how out of touch with reality is he to describe Senators such as Chuck Hagel, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, Gordon Smith, Susan Collins, and others as puppets? If Reid couldn’t work with these Senators, then he’s not capable of working with any Republican. Speaker Pelosi has said that Congress needs to have a new tone when it returns in January. One can only hope that the holiday recess helps Harry Reid take a new approach as well.
