Five days before the election, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has ruled out trying to work with Mitt Romney should he win next week.
“Mitt Romney’s fantasy that Senate Democrats will work with him to pass his ‘severely conservative’ agenda is laughable,” Mr. Reid said in a statement on Friday, trying to puncture Mr. Romney’s closing election argument that he’ll be able to deliver on the bipartisanship President Obama promised in 2008 but has struggled to live up to.
Mr. Reid, a Nevada Democrat and a Mormon, like Mr. Romney, has become the Republican presidential nominee’s chief critic this campaign, at one point accusing him of failing to pay taxes — a charge that Mr. Romney has refuted.
With Democrats appearing poised to keep control of the Senate, a President Romney would have to be prepared to work with Mr. Reid, who would set the upper chamber’s schedule and determine what bills make it to the floor.
Mr. Reid flatly ruled out following Mr. Romney’s agenda, saying he and his colleagues have already voted down many of those proposals, including House Republicans’ budget, written by Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan.
“Mitt Romney has demonstrated that he lacks the courage to stand up to the tea party, kowtowing to their demands time and again. There is nothing in Mitt Romney’s record to suggest he would act any differently as president,” Mr. Reid said.
Well then. I guess it’s a good thing President Obama has opened the way for rule by Executive Order then, isn’t it, Senator Reid?
Incidentally, is it really a given that the Senate will stay in Democratic hands? I mean, if even the Washington Times is calling it likely, then what’s the point of a Romney presidency? If we can’t repeal Obamacare, none of this matters.
So somebody: please tell me where this insistence is coming from that the Democrats will keep control of the Senate. Because though I don’t put a lot of stock in polls, I have seen that many of them are very close races — and that voter turnout, spurred by an enthusiasm gap that favors Republicans, should actually help them win many of those tightly contested races?
Where am I wrong? Help a brother out. One who is suddenly despairing.
on wed. the former senate majority leader can go eff himself
I hope he has no idea how right he is.
The obvious choice is to get Reid the hell out of office. Democrats bitch about Republican obstructionalism, but not one peep about how the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in years.
Harry Reid can go right out and fuck himself with a Joshua Tree.
Good point, Slart. He can’t work with Obama either.
Not after the Joshua-tree thing, he can’t.
If Reid won’t play along, then Romney can just dang him to heck.
Can Brown hold Mass? Can Akin beat McCaskill? Will Mandel pull it out? Fischer? Flake? Can Connie Mack get it done?
Honest to God, looking at these polls is remarkable. It seems like America is polling at “no, we don’t really need change. Everything’s cool.”
I just can’t wrap my head around that.
Stop reading the polls. Honest.
There are too many of them and they are all cherry-picked to reflect the pollsters’ bias.
We’re going to pick up Senate and House seats. Enough for a majority? I don’t know.
I just changed my mind on Mack. I don’t like the guy; he’s kind of a know-nothing, do-nothing kind of guy who is riding on the names of his forebears. But at this point I’d risk some amount of stupidity in the Senate just to get a fucking budget passed.
Is what it’s come down to, as far as I am concerned.
If we don’t get at least 50 in the Senate, a Romney victory is meaningless. Or rather, it will probably mean Romney moves left and works with Democrats more.
We’ve lost our way.
Government gridlock is better than government tyranny. The only think Romney and Ryan are going to pass are basic, overdue reforms anyway, I bet. Most Senate Dems will probably go with it, even if Reid still maintains his crazy old man status.
If we could ever have come up with someone with half a brain to oppose Nelson, we wouldn’t be where we are now. Last time, recall, it was Katherine Harris. Who it turned out was not very smart.
But, as I said: I no longer give a fuck about smart, so much.
A budget passed? Fuck, man, if ObamaCare isn’t repealed we’re all going to suffer enormously. I don’t care who the candidate is. Vote any Dem out.
William, it’s about ObamaCare. If we don’t show a mandate to repeal it, it stays, becomes entrenched, and we’re done.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in New York are making a dog’s dinner of the post-hurricane recovery effort.
I wonder who’s going under the bus for that?
The people of Staten Island are highly pissed off at resources being diverted to Manhattan for the NYC Marathon while they are sitting in the cold and dark with no groceries.
Hoteliers were instructed to give NYers who are living in their hotels until their power is restored, the old heave-ho to let in the marathoners who have reservations. Reservations!, damn it! To their credit, the hoteliers have told the city pols to piss up a rope and for the marathoners to find other accommodations.
Brown (MA) holds. Akin wins. Thompson squeaks in.
Rush gets a Muscovite female caller, in dread of socialist liar Obama. Very moving testimony.
The word is, the Dems are counting on state polls, now that the national polls show Romney pulling ahead (or they did before today, I’m trying not to pay attention to any of this from now until Tuesday).
So you have a bunch of state polls, many of which have never been seen before this year, and have no track record. They show Dem wins in Indiana, Missouri, Florida, etc, but we have no reason to believe any of them have a clue what they are doing.
So that’s what Harry Reid is doing this weekend. Banking his entire future as a person who matters in any small way, on the suspect data coming from a bunch of amateur pollers.
You and I don’t have to do the same. We can believe none of this nonsense, and hope the American people are not as stupid as the Dems need them to be.
Kind of revealing that the city thinks they can tell hoteliers who can stay and who can’t in their hotels, isn’t it?
I love it when he gets former Eastern Bloc dwellers calling in. I went to grad school with many Russians and they were fearsome in their takedowns of fluffy socialist dreams.
“Commoonism is shit! I was raise in (name of country) and (terrible story follows).”
Tuesday is going to be eventful no matter what. The question after will be whether I need to buy more ammo or not.
You can never have too much ammo.
Bipartisanship is dead until a Dem POTUS rules. Then it’s all getting things done and the work of the American people and all that other cover for enslaving us.
That states the obvious. What’s less obvious but just as predictable is that that phenomenon bespeaks simple evil. Dingy Harry doesn’t even have to disguise it, probably mostly because the son of a bitch doesn’t have a conscience to bother with and his foolhardy konstuents don’t give a shit as long as they get ObamaFone.
Yeah, evil. Punching back twice as hard is all we’ll ever have.
I’m reading about the government shutting down Buckyballs because they wouldn’t individually label each ball as dangerous.
We already are done. I just have faith that America can pick up the pieces and start again.
Oh, well. I guess there’s always nipples.
Wait; wrong nipples.
Jeff: I know it’s anecdotal down here in SW Ohio because he’ll have to at least make a decent showing the in D-heavy Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland trio but I truly believe Mandel has a legit shot. Brown is a career, mega-liberal DOOSH that even Indies won’t abide. The R momentum in this state is palpable. OH tossed a 1-term Dem Governor in 2010 with the help of energized cons/R base. In a few hours, Romney holds a HUGE rally – now coined RNC II – in West Chester (Butler County) . They’re expecting THOUSANDS and opening the doors 4 hours ahead of the 7:30p start time.
So, buck up, little camper…..and pass me that speed loader.
I just can’t wrap my head around that..
– Maybe you should think about this then.
– I recall not a single fucking word being said about the slaughter of 2010 prior to its happening.
– Which, you know, coupled with a media hell bent on perception gaming and the hell with reality, says something about what we should wrap our heads around.
– Will it happen? I don't know. What I do know is that was two years ago, and things are exponentially more fucked up than they were then.
– So, a different sort of hope and changey would be where my money is.
– HTML tends to react better to calmness.
– That, and people are taking dumps in building hallways in NY. So theres that.
I fixed youse kode, BBH. Yay us!
I don’t think it’s a stretch to think the GOP will pick up ND, MT, VA, AZ, and NV. That gets them to 48. From there, they only need to pick up 3 from WI, IN, OH, FL, MA, and MO. Really, they only need 2 of those, with Ryan as a tiebreaker.
Hell, the way things are going, they could get CT and PA, too.
The Senate went from 41 in 2008, to 47 in 2010. It could be 52 in 2012, which would be enough to get some movement started. If Romney manages not to screw up, and the economy gets a bit of wind in its sails, the GOP could wind up with 60 in 2014, at which point the filibuster threat goes away. Even if they don’t hit that threshold, a resurgent Tea Party could scare a couple of squishy Dems into breaking ranks on filibusters, even if they ultimately vote against the reform bills.
When we’re arguing about who to put in leadership positions, we’ll know we’re making real progress.
What happened was Czarz R US.
The thing is, Mitt needs to install one czar. The czar of finding the most recent act, action, policy, or other lynchpin holding each and every agency, department, administration and whatnot up and start pulling threads. Unravel everything from the most recent to the oldest.
DHHS, Environment, SS, Medicrap, education (especially), NASA, parks- all of it. Then with the lightest hand and a renewed country, maybe kinda sorta think about considering how to maybe one day in the future possibly plan to start just a fraction of the essential stuff back up at some point after a future date. By lottery.
Every thread pulled; each piece of shit demolished and the economy jumps ahead.
Adults. Be some, America. You cannot exist on debt. You $%@& blinkered %$)@%$ idiots.
Mandel is fantastic. We need him. I’m also thrilled with Fischer, Cruz, Allen, and yes, Connie Mack (who had a debt reduction plan I liked quite a bit). Mourdock is also very good, despite the way he’s being demonized — including by many on the right of the same ilk who helped sink Sharon Angle and were backing Crist over Rubio.
Brown one year was to the left of Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist. How in the hell does he get away with that in Ohio?
i predict a tom smith win in pa
George Allen will win VA. By my reckoning that gives Team R 51.
52 if nr is right about Smith in PA.
Crist was an obvious shitbag. He screwed himself by caving to the teacher’s unions. Good riddance, Crist, and enjoy your new job as an
ambulance chaserpersonal injury attorney!I forgot about Smith. I hope he pulls it out.
Tucker Carlson is blaming Indiana TEA party types for losing the state. Should have kept Lugar. And yet no mention of Lugar refusing to back the conservative after 36 years of conservative support in the state.
Guess that’s why Tucker wears a bow tie. And is named Tucker.
George Will was already taken.
– Thanx Jho, now tackle the doubled “is is” in the fundraiser lede please.
– (Unless of course, that’s just Jeffs way of sneakily mocking slick Willey.)
Clinton Heading to Pa. on Monday
Okay, just donated a few bucks to Smith, Heller, and for the House, Adam Hasner and Harrington in FL.
Dick Morris: Pennsylvania Is the ‘New Ohio’
This is why we need to control all three branches of government. More importantly, this is why Republicans who want to work with Democrats –whether it be for the sake of comity, or Senate tradition, or the bipartisnship that the mediacrats tell them is wanted, or just to get a nice write-up in the Washington Post or the New York Times– all need to be neutered.
As far as leadership is concerned, Boehner and Mitchell have got to go. And Karl Rove exiled to The Five, or whatever the hell the name of Gutfeld’s gabfest is.
In case nobody’s mentioned it yet.
Redeye is Gutfeld’s show.
Bob Beckel or Juan William’s are on The Five.
We lost our way sometime in 1990 or 1991. We started to find our way again in 1994 and then lost the track again in 1998. We though we’d found a path forward in 2008 and by 2006, we didn’t have a fucking clue were it was we other other than it was somewhere we didn’t want to be.
Bob Beckel or Juan William’s are on The Five.
So’s Gutfeld
You have a Tardis!
Yes, he is. Redeye is his late night or early morning show that I have never seen.
To say nothing of the entire establishment soiling themselves over Akin.
If we fail to win back the Senate, it’s because the Establishment wing of the GOP doesn’t want to win the Senate, not with the wrong sort.
Time to whet the long knives.
Can’t remove what they don’t have.
Also, even if Republicans happen to win a slim majority in the Senate, what makes anyone think there won’t be defectors? I’m sure there are quite few establishment types licking their chops over the price tag of their vote.
Jeffords and Specter are gone but Princess Lisa remains. I have no idea who the other potential defectors might be. Grahamnesty? Hatch?
It’s okay. If we’re not permanently pissed we’re not cognizant of the problem and if not cognizant of the problem, we’re not part of the solution.
Going to Montana soon, gonna drive a ‘49 Power Wagon.
NYC Marathon officially cancelled.
They got shamed into it.
I think it was the runners. I’m sure 70% of them knew how tone deaf it would be to race.
Not exactly t-shirt worthy: “I went to NYT to run, and all I got was my water stolen by desperate, homeless people!”
Can anyone see Obama channeling Harry Dean Stanton in Red Dawn yelling, “Avenge me!” to his supporters?
Someone needs to tell Reid that no one wants to work with him anyway and we expect he will be replaced in the next few months.
Hatch won’t defect. If anyone does it’ll be Graham or McCain. And Graham is going to be challenged in a primary, mark my words.
It won’t be McCain either. If he defects, how’s he going to keep stabbing Republicans in the back?
I’m with Ernst. McCain will jump ship on individual bills — if there’s media adulation in it for him — but I think if he were ever going to switch parties he would have done it before this.
So I guess we’re still down to Lisa Mercowsquy?
Apologies, I didn’t mean defect ala Jeffords. I meant I can see individuals defecting from say an Obamacare repeal vote, like Murkowski, for teh wimmins. How much do you think her vote would cost for something like that? And when the bidding starts, who else is going to want in on the action?
I thought we were talking about defecting on individual votes, not changing parties. McCain obviously won’t change parties. He wouldn’t be a “Maverick” then. Just an old statist shitheel nobody really likes.
I tend to agree with Beck who said this morning that he expects to see the electoral equivalent of Chik-fil-A Day. There are going to be a great number of stunned media types come Wednesday morning, but this time they won’t be able to simply ignore reality.
Someone posted some clips of the 1980 results coming is a while back. That kind of shock is going to pale in comparison.
Mourdock is awesome.
LegalInsurrection: Anti-Mourdock polling games in Indiana? (Update – Rasmussen has 3 pt spread, not 11 like Howey)
}Let us take note: if the greengrocer had been instructed to display the slogan “I am afraid and therefore unquestioningly obedient;’ he would not be nearly as indifferent to its semantics, even though the statement would reflect the truth. The greengrocer would be embarrassed and ashamed to put such an unequivocal statement of his own degradation in the shop window, and quite naturally so, for he is a human being and thus has a sense of his own dignity. To overcome this complication, his expression of loyalty must take the form of a sign which, at least on its textual surface, indicates a level of disinterested conviction. It must allow the greengrocer to say, “What’s wrong with the workers of the world uniting?” Thus the sign helps the greengrocer to conceal from himself the low foundations of his obedience, at the same time concealing the low foundations of power. It hides them behind the facade of something high. And that something is ideology.
havel
Forward newrouter
}Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves. It is a very pragmatic but, at the same time, an apparently dignified way of legitimizing what is above, below, and on either side. It is directed toward people and toward God. It is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own fallen existence, their trivialization, and their adaptation to the status quo. It is an excuse that everyone can use, from the greengrocer, who conceals his fear of losing his job behind an alleged interest in the unification of the workers of the world, to the highest functionary, whose interest in staying in power can be cloaked in phrases about service to the working class. The primary excusatory function of ideology, therefore, is to provide people, both as victims and pillars of the post-totalitarian system, with the illusion that the system is in harmony with the human order and the order of the universe. . . .
{9}The post-totalitarian system touches people at every step, but it does so with its ideological gloves on. This is why life in the system is so thoroughly permeated with hypocrisy and lies: government by bureaucracy is called popular government; the working class is enslaved in the name of the working class; the complete degradation of the individual is presented as his ultimate liberation; depriving people of information is called making it available; the use of power to manipulate is called the public control of power, and the arbitrary abuse of power is called observing the legal code; the repression of culture is called its development; the expansion of imperial influence is presented as support for the oppressed; the lack of free expression becomes the highest form of freedom; farcical elections become the highest form of democracy; banning independent thought becomes the most scientific of world views; military occupation becomes fraternal assistance. Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics. It pretends not to possess an omnipotent and unprincipled police apparatus. It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.
eff despair
Big country
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