Wonkette
- NO SENATE VOTE BEFORE STUPID AUGUST VACATION: Oh look, it is now official, because Harry Reid said it: the Senate will not vote on a health care reform package before the August recess. Why not delay the recess a month or two and finish things while you have momentum — you know, the “not offensive to everyone” solution? [NYT]
Thanks, Harry! No one can squander a majority like you!
Harry Reid is an incompetent failure. I can’t tell you how much I hope he manages to lose his seat next election. Can someone who knows which Dem would be next in line chime in with that information? Am I right to think it would be Schumer? Who, you know, actually seems to be able to put his pants on correctly in the morning without accidentally immediately surrendering to a tiny regional extremist fringe party?
Can we have a new majority leader after recess?
All MOCs must return to their home districts in August because that’s when they all scheduled their doctors appointments.
My cat has bigger balls than Harry Reid and he’s been snipped. And all of this because Max Baucus, who can’t seem to figure out which industry he’d like to reward more. If I were Rahm, I’d give some subtle hints to Baucus about there possibly being “rogue” horses at his “Summer Camp.”
Harry Reid is George McClellan to Obama’s Lincoln.
(500) Delays of Summer. “Get in the unemployment line, now!”
Yeah, no vote before recess so we can get more (R-NO)’s on board? Right, Harry, you ignorant, spineless cunt, there will not be one, not one Rethug that votes yea for this thing, not one.
I have yet to read/hear Harry Reid’s name without thinking, “Worthless sackless turdblossom” immediately thereafter. This time, though, “DIAF” snuck in there too.
That decision has the momentum of this telegram– “Technology is on the move. STOP”
I’m confused, are you implying that Reid is capable of being “not offensive to everyone”? Because if so I would have to disagree.
This is why I thought Comrade O’Bama should’ve pushed to keep Hilary in the Senate as Majority Leader since: 1)She’s got a far bigger sack than Reid; 2)Obama would be doing her a solid favor, while keeping her out of his hair; 3)If the Program goes wrong and his party loses seats in the 2010 elections, Obama can shift blame to Hilz.
Yeah, Harry Reid also said it would be great if we can all carry our guns all over state lines.
Stupid fuckin retarded duechbag.
Gripping drama.
No, wait, I meant ‘griping’ drama. Hell with it.
You would think the idea of hot, sweaty interns would be enough to keep the Republicans in D.C. in August.
osama bin drinkin: Dick Durbin maybe. I think he’s the majority whip. From Illinois. That’s all I know bout him.
TGY: At least you didn’t say ‘dripping gramma’.
Harry just gave himself a wedgie so the bluedogs won’t have to. what a putz.
In other news, Marsha Blackburn (R-White People, Tenn.) is not one to be panicked:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=cqmidday-000003173755
Don’t Cry ‘Katrina’
July 22, 2009
Nobody can fault Rep. Marsha Blackburn for wanting to put the brakes on spending. But her comments Wednesday during the floor debate on a budget pay-as-you-go bill raised a few eyebrows.
Urging the adoption of tougher standards than the bill provides, the Tennessee Republican said she hoped lawmakers would agree “that we’re not going to cry ‘emergency’ every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a tsunami, every time we have a need for extra spending.”
osama bin drinkin: Senate Majority Leader is an elected position. I’d go with crazy Jim Webb. He knows no reason.
I see Reid as the type of person who says things like “golly gee whilikers” and “oh, gosh” a lot and whenever the Democrats are unable to get a bill passed because not enough Democrats even voted to prevent a filibuster, he just tells everyone “golly gee, boys, we’ll get them next time for sure” and then goes home thinking that gosh darnit, he did the very best he could.
x111e7thst: Durbin’s great if a bit frumpy looking. I think Schumer might work because even if he’s bought and owned by the financial industry, he’s got a bit of the New Yawk attitude and could probably scare the living shit out of Baucus.
Next time I see Hairy at the airport I will kick him in the balls, oh wait, he’s sans ballsack.
Jim Webb? good choice. he tough. he’d kick some ass in the halls of congress.
Why is this asswipe Majority Leader anyway?
Mild Midwesterner: “…that’s when they all scheduled their doctors appointments.” Paid for with their government healthcare. May I have a doctor’s appointment? Pretty please?? What? Because I don’t have what?
S.Luggo: Oh dammit, that is MY representative. How embarrassing.
freakin’ mormon/moran ruins everything again. Mr. Milketoaste sings ‘Kumbaya’with the teabaggers.
Well, I guess that’s that. It was a nice idea while it lasted.
What a corrupt spineless bag of dicks.
Give ‘em hell Harry! When you get around to it, if it’s not too much trouble, if you can get bipartisan support on giving them hell…
S.Luggo: To be fair, dear Marsha wouldn’t know a hurricane or a tsunami if it rolled over and obliterated her (red)neck of the woods. And besides that, she loves her some blacks… especially the fieldhands who pick her cotton, the mammies who birth her babies, and the house niggers who keep all the Confederate-era family silver polished.
Hooray For Anything: He probably has no idea of why anyone would be upset with the job he’s doing.
The Democrats have 60 seats in the Senate, a majority in the house and a president in the White House. If they can’t get health care reform passed, they don’t deserve to be re-elected.
Sorry, snark will return in my next comment.
Why in the name of the 21st Century does Congress need a month’s vacation in August anyway? The gubmint air-conditions the whole place so the “mad dogs and Englishmen”/tropical hardship duty post of DC in the summer excuse is no longer valid.
Communing with their electorates? Allow me skeptical doubt by the bucketload.
Sheesh, the rest of us wage slaves have to work in August, why not elected officials? For a change. And for change, for a change.
Vacation? Tough rocks. Time’s are tough and healthcare is too darn important to set aside for the BBQ fork, Coppertone, Six Flags or a junket overseas.
Recess-schmeecess. Buckle down and get to work, Congress.
Zadig: You’re in the 7th? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
It’s not actually Harry’s fault.
I know he seems like a sniveling little shitsack but here’s a list you should look at:
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Mark Begich (D-AK)
Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
John D. Rockefeller (D-WV)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
Quite aside from the specific issue of Baucus chairing the Finance committee, focus on the fact that without these guys, there’s no Democratic majority in the Senate. These guys’ constituents *do not want Obama to be President*, and I assume they want (or think they want, or whatever) us to do whatever McCain wanted to do about health care (tax cuts?). If the leadership just ignores them and puts exactly what Obama and Kennedy want up for a vote, these guys could vote against it and be able to honestly say they are just doing what their constituents want. That’s what’s so frustrating about the Dem majority in Congress. (The House has the exact same problem–there’s more Blue Dogs than the Dem-GOP margin–but the collegial, undemocratic, fillibuster-y nature of the Senate makes it worse.)
Add in Vinegar Joe and Evan Bayh, who if you remember wanted to form a centrist caucus of these guys for himself to be the leader of, back when the stimulus bill was getting written, and some of the southern Democrats from places like NC, and you quickly get to a place where you do need some GOP votes to even pass health care with the 51-vote budget reconcilliation! But there’s plenty of GOP senators from states Obama won (the Maine ladies, Martinez in Florida, Grassley in Iowa, etc.), presumably at least some of them are decent folks who do want to do what their constituents want, but each of them has some whiny complaint that reflects their conservative ideas that make them GOP instead of Dem in the first place that they want to shove into the bill before they’ll vote for it.
So that enormous slap-fight is going to take longer than the next 2 weeks. It’s not Harry Reid’s fault. (Many other things *are* Harry Reid’s fault, but lay off the guy over this.)
cheeto_jeebus: His magic Mormon panties have a reinforced handle in back for just such a purpose.
Fuck.
Jon Stewart’s worst guest of all time? Harry Reid.
“You know who was not good — Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid. We had him on the show and he was like in a coma…”
Ladies & gentleman, your 2009 Democratic Senate leadership! Dammit, get Rahm down there to give these turds the ol’ 9-finger salute. What a bunch of grubby jerks. Kevin Baker of Harper’s said it best: Reid is “yet another small gray man from a great big space where the tumbleweeds blow.” Stop letting the rural minority assfuck the urban majority.
Hooray For Anything: It’s funny how he plays the Barney-Fife “aw shucks” role whenever progressives try to get legislation passed, but when he is doing shady-ass real estate casino deals with Indians out in Vegas, suddenly he’s the fucking Gordon Gekko character in Wall Street.
The President is constitutionally permitted to require the Senate and/or House to remain at work if he deems it necessary. The House did their part so they can take their holiday. The Senate needs to stay at work.
People are losing their insurance, having treatment denied, premiums raised, and just plain dying.
It’s necessary.
bhosp: They’re also some of the top earners of health industry lobbying money. In fact, Bauchus is the leading recipient—he’s been pulling down over 1.5 million per year for the last few years, and is actually increasing his efforts to earn even more.
Their constituents’ wishes are directly related to their constituents’ perception of the problem, and their constituent’s perception is directly influenced by the bought & paid for load of industry b.s. they’ve been selling them.
It’s a fucking feedback loop of fuckery.
In fairness, Harry was ok in the minority; he plays an insider game and with a minority, had to handle a very poor hand. But a more forceful presence is needed now and he isn’t providing it.
Extemporanus: Yeah but my point is none of that is Reid’s fault.
I hope Rahm kicked Harry in the shins while he was up on the Hill today.
bhosp: But still, they’re Democrats and supporting Health Care reform is what supporting low taxes is to Republicans– the biggest thing they believe in. So now that they’re in power and now that they can actually pass health care reform, it should be time for them to actually put money where their mouth is. And maybe…just maybe, they’ll still win reelection and maybe…just maybe they’ll turn their state blue by taking a stand on one of the biggest issues facing the country and getting it right. Successfully voting for health care reform is certainly a better thing to put on your resume than hemming and hawing about health care reform is.
bhosp: Understood—I meant to address that but the mobius loop of a sentence I wrote about the constituents made me lose my train of thought.
It may be true that it’s not Reid’s fault that those senators are whores, but it’s his job to remind them in no uncertain terms who their real pimp is.
You’d think that at some point Harry Reid would realize that every Democrat in US America wants to see him de-pantsed and strung up a flag pole (not strung up dead, mind you) for all to point at & laugh. You’d think that this might motivate him to try to actually do something before he becomes known in the history books (if they’re still written in the future) as the moran who had a 60-vote majority and used it to accomplish exactly nothing. You’d think that and you’d be wrong.
Whoever said we get the leaders we deserve didn’t know about Harry Reid. I guarantee if you de-pants him you’ll find he is as smooth between the legs as the Ken doll you used to rub against the Barbie doll while making vaguely barn animal-like noises when you were 8-years-old. No balls, no guts, no brains; just a wrinkled skin sack kept upright by the slow, never-ending emission of dull farts.
bhosp: If it ain’t his fault, who’s is it? Members being beholden to their constituents’ provincial perceptions is as old as the legislature. He needs to start whipping ass or we need another Whip. Period.
problemwithcaring: You know what, Durbin’s actually the Whip, but whatever, that’s all the defense I can muster for that sadsack.
http://llamabutchers.mu.nu/archives/Harry%20Reid%20Is%20Incompetent.jpg
So healthcare reform is dead then? Can we form a real Progessive Party now since the Democrats are useless sacks of shit? It’s not that they can’t reform healthcare they don’t want to. They won’t so shit after the recess and the crowing from the GOP will drive public support down even more. It’s Hillarycare all over again. What more do they need? 65 Senators? I’m sick of them.
Holding Out for a Hero: No point in kicking him between the legs. NO BALLS!
What do you expect from a graduate of ‘Basic High School’, home of the ‘Low Cost Cigarettes’?
9/11
AIPAC
The Fed
Single Payer
Propaganda Media
nader paul kucinich gravel: What’s that, some kind of birther-Paultard hybrid haiku?
TexasCowGirl: I welcome a NEW Progressive Party.
Then we could have 4 parties;
the Palin Christianist Patriot Party,
The Republicans,
the Democrats, and
the Independent Progressives
huzzah!