Harry Reid’s desperate gambit
As everyone knows, Harry Reid is in the fight of his electoral life in Nevada. The Republican senate candidate, Sharon Angle, is within the margin of error on most polls looking at the race. So Harry needs something to attract more votes, obviously.
Hey, when you’re the Senate Majority Leader, you get to set that body’s legislative agenda and decide what bills considered by the Senate will or won’t contain and how they’ll be scheduled on the floor for votes.
So why not use that power to at least attempt some things which, while they may not succeed, will at least give one the “hey I tried, but it was the nasty Republicans, like my opponent who killed it”.
With that in mind, Reid has decided that the DREAM act needs to be a part of the defense authorization bill.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he will add the DREAM Act, a controversial immigration measure, to a defense policy bill the Senate will take up next week.
The decision means the defense bill, which often passes with bipartisan support, will be home to two major, thorny political issues – the other being the repeal of the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy.
Reid called the DREAM Act "really important" and said it should be passed because it provides a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military. DREAM is an acronym for Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act.
"I know we can’t do comprehensive immigration reform," Reid said at a news conference. "But those Republicans we had in the last Congress have left us."
This, again, is one of the reasons we have the mess we have now. This is an obvious and transparent attempt at vote buying. It is calculated to appeal to a bloc of voters who’ve been dissatisfied with Reid’s performance on their behalf. It is pure special interest politics that gives an incumbent like Reid an advantage. And if it goes down to defeat, he can at least point to it and say “I tried”. If it manages to be passed, he can point to it and take credit. Maybe that will get him just enough votes to slide by.
Pure short-term, electoral politics – a consistent problem with our system.
And I love how “serving in the military” is the equivalent of “going to college”. Why, do they have minefields in the college square. PKM’s in the admin building sweeping the quadrangle? IEDs in the parking lots?
Yeah, that’s an aside, but you get my drift. As usual, legislation cobbled together with no real thought except short-term gain and haphazardly thrown into another bill which has absolutely noting to do with immigration. That’s how you get this morass of bad law we endure that features contradictions and unintended consequences galore.
We all have to hope that Harry Reid becomes a second Tom Daschle – a sitting Senate Majority Leader shown the door by his constituents. He embodies everything that’s wrong with today’s politicians. Let Harry enjoy his golden years in forced retirement.
~McQ
“I know we can’t do comprehensive immigration reform,” Reid said at a news conference. “But those Republicans we had in the last Congress have left us.”
>>> And again, I’ll blast ANYONE ever dares to utter this tripe in my lifetime.
The Dems had supermajorities. They didn’t need a single GOP vote.
If some cherished part of the Dem agenda wasn’t done, I don’t want to hear about it. EVER AGAIN.
Couldn’t agree more. They won’t get things passed because democrats will refuse to vote for them. I have never heard of a party with supermajorities and the executive branch complain about a minority party so much. A pox on both their houses, but the Dems just earn much more contempt from me for their incessant whining and distorting.
Let’s lay this one to rest. The “poison pill” on the last immigration bill was the Dorgan amendment.
In fact, the roll call vote shows that Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NE), Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senate Pres. Pro Tempore Robert Byrd (D-WV) voted for the Dorgan amendment. Hary Reid should be ashamed. His placating of the unions, ended the last attempt.
Harry Reid needs to go back to Nevada and take up his true calling … funeral director.
shark – I’ll blast ANYONE ever dares to utter this tripe in my lifetime.
Get ready for some constant blasting, then, because you’ll be hearing about it until doomsday. The dems have siezed onto the “Party of No” meme and they won’t be giving it up anytime soon. It’s a twofer for them:
1. It gives them an excuse to toss to those parts of their base that didn’t get the goodies they expected from the regime;
2. It’s a campaign slogan to be trotted out against the GOP: “Don’t vote for THEM. All that bunch of racist teabaggers can do is say ‘no’ to women, the poor, and minorities!”
Hell, I expect our grandchildren to read about “Party of No” in their history books.
The upcoming Mid-Terms and the accompanying campaign is for the express purpose of putting Congress on notice. Incumbents who cannot even survive Primaries. Hand selected Party Favorites are being gunned down by insurgent campaigns. All of these events serve a purpose far beyond the Mid-Terms, important as they may be. Because no matter how successful the Republicans may be in taking back the House or Senate, Obama will still hold the Veto mallet firmly in hand.
So, of equal importance is how the message is being received from those survivors who may still be tempted to toe the Obama agenda line. They are on notice. For Dems in the house who survive this season and for Senators who are not in the fray this time – the message is the same. Toe the Obama line and you will get yours – Period.
The Republicans may or may not take the house, and will probably not take the Senate. But the message has already been sent and had better be received loud and clear. You want to continue on this hard core Left course, kiss you job goodby come ’12.
Reid, whether he survives or not, with a Democratic majority in the Senate or not, will face a completely new political dimension – Incumbents of all stripes running scared. Come 2012 all of the House gets hit again, and a third of the Senate is in the fight and this time far more Democrats are on the edge. And if this mid-term to date is but a beginning, you will see far fewer of the remaining Dems eager to toe the Obama line. And if they do, and follow the thugish practices of the last two years, they better hope their constituents are hard core leftists because they will then be toast come the next gathering.
Remember – right now the goal should be to blunt the Democrat agenda and then in ’12 Take It All Back! And. Keep. It!!!
Just because of that veto pen, I don’t think the Republicans will be able to do much except be a better “Party of NO” next session. In some ways, to make sure that Obama doesn’t have the “foil” he wants to aid his re-election, it might be best to fall short in the Senate and make it up in 2012 when 20+ Democrats are up with about 6 to 8 that can be defeated.
You guys probably get tired of me saying it but; if the Republicans win the house (and hopefully the Senate) they have to legislate like conservatives! They will be presented with every chance to do things like it’s always been done. If they act like liberal democrats and not the conservatives they are elected to be,,,,,, the shit will hit the fan.
If they do win the house and maybe the senate what do you expect from this administration and this democrat congress? I expect them to try and push through more of their left wing agenda before the conservatives are sworn in. How will that be received? How will it be reported?
Yeah, but in the Senate even if they get 50, they don’t. With the RINOs like Snowe, Collins and even McCain and Brown, they really won’t have a conservative majority. With 50, Snowe, Collins, Brown, McCain, and Graham will be making deals that undermine the conservative Republicans. They only fall in line when the Democrats offer egregious legislation.
“ it provides a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military.”
There is already a path to citizenship for members of the military.
This is a happier path, bordered by moon pony fields, and Unicorn groves, with “vote Democrat” & “Harry Reid Loves you!” signs strategically placed along the way.
Seriously, they have to be 5 year legal residents as one of the current requirements. Harry obviously wants us to do a Légion étrangère.
Is this a desperate gambit or a suicide pill?
I hope for the latter, in this case.
This is sort a late comment on this thread, but I would like to expand on the comment left by jpm100. With the employment picture in Nevada on of the worst in the nation, offering any path to citizenship for illegals is likely to lose Harry some of the support he has received from the nomination of Sharon Angle. I have friends in Nevada, and one of the topics they are most sensitive about is illegal immigration. I think that jpm100 is right in both cases.