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October 22nd, 2009 | 
Author: That used to be one of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats favorite descriptions of George Bush. The irony is I’ve seen nothing from Harry Reid that says he has any room to judge anyone else’s competence. The latest:
After a month of praising bipartisanship, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at the GOP on the Senate floor Wednesday when a Medicare measure he brought up for a vote failed amid concerns about its impact on the deficit.
The bill would have prevented a 20 percent drop in Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors that is scheduled to take effect in January.
Reid angrily blamed the loss on bad intelligence from the American Medical Association, which he said promised him 27 Republican votes (he got none), as well as Republican dirty tricks designed to impede Democrats’ progress on meaningful reform.
Just as a lawyer should never ask a question of someone on the stand for which he doesn’t know the answer, you’d think a Senate Majority leader wouldn’t bring something to the Senate floor for a vote unless he knew he had the votes. And Senate Majority leaders normally don’t rely on lobbyists for their vote counts. Outsourcing such a task to the AMA doesn’t appear to have been a very smart move.
Vote counting is a tried and true art within legislative bodies and any competent leader would pretty much know what to expect before ever putting a bill or amendment up for a vote. In fact, Reid missed by 27 – just on the Republican side.
Apparently he wasn’t aware of the 13 Democrats who were going to vote against it as well. That’s 40 no votes in a body of 100 that he didn’t know about. That’s a pretty big miss. And a reminder – Democrats hold a 60 vote filibuster-proof majority (the two “indies” caucus with the Democrats).
Then he whines about things being run by a minority – a game he was more than happy to play when he was the Minority leader.
Harry Reid – incompetent (not that I’m complaining, mind you – just pointing it out), and the opposition’s best friend.
~McQ
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Incompetent or insane?
Yes.
[...] –McQ: Vote counting is a tried and true art within legislative bodies and any competent leader would pretty much know what to expect before ever putting a bill or amendment up for a vote. In fact, Reid missed by 27 – just on the Republican side. [...]
Does Reid know that he doesn’t need a single GOP vote to make this abomination happen?
The bad news is he won’t have his spot much longer if the polls are to be believed.
I hope I live to see the day when the phrase ‘dirty tricks’ is no longer in use by politicians. They seem to think it sounds sinister; it sounds like something the Lutheran Ladies knitting group would use.
A bigger question is: how does someone like Reid get to this position? What’s wrong with us?
Getting 13 Democrats seems a bit more bipartisan than just getting 1 Republican.
By the way, I hate stories (like the link) that are about votes or an election but don’t bother to acutally state the vote count (and I don’t even mean percentages).
The Senate vote was 47-53
They did state 47 for but that’s as useful as the imfamous joke ..
… and a partial score .. Alcorn 23
[...] –McQ: Vote counting is a tried and true art within legislative bodies and any competent leader would pretty much know what to expect before ever putting a bill or amendment up for a vote. In fact, Reid missed by 27 – just on the Republican side. [...]
Is that a question or a malformed statement?
Redundant.
Maybe he’s secretly a Republican and is considering pulling a reverse Specter?
(…and then the alarm clock rang.)