News and Politics, Notes From All Over

Notes From All Over – through June 27

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Comment here on the Notes From All Over for the past week. We’ve numbered the comments for your convenience.

6 comments for “Notes From All Over – through June 27”

  1. #28 – The sad part is that there is no one out there that can replace Reid in Nevada. A sad state of affairs.

  2. #42

    Unfortunately, as any missionary or RM can attest, this effect is all too real (no Axe Body Spray needed).

    Ironically, most of the missionaries in my mission, in the Philippines, used Axe religiously (pun definitely not intended).

  3. Dan – Take Mason Dixon’s numbers with a grain of salt. First up, Mason Dixon is seen by many observers as skewing conservative (and this poll was for the hyper conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal). Second, Reid’s still very much the odds on favorite to win re-election. He’s nearly always fought through pretty bruising election fights and is as tough a candidate as you’re going to find. Third, he’s an absolutely daunting warchest. And fourth, (related to all of the above), the GOP has been able to land no top tier candidate to run counter to Reid. Polling notwithstanding, Reid really delivers for Nevada in a lot of key ways (for recent examples, see Yucca Mountain and the LA-Vegas speedrail), and I think it’s going to be difficult for anyone to top him.

    The underlying story here is that it is tough to be the Senate leader of either major party. Look at Daschle, Lott, McConnell, and, of course, Reid, just to name a few). All ran into serious electoral troubles after landing in leadership. Being a national leader often makes you look out of touch to your local constituents and also typically forces you further to the right or left, thereby alienating crucial independents.

  4. Mark,

    I think you misunderstand me. I want Reid out. He has not run the Senate well at all. He’s got 59 Senators and yet can’t manage to get much at all done.

  5. Wow. I think you thoroughly misunderstand what Reid is up against. Politics aside, I’m not saying the man’s a perfect leader, but your comment bewilders me.

    First of all one can hardly allege that the Democrats have not gotten “much at all done” (you may not like what they’ve done so far, but legislatively they’ve been a busy bunch… Stimulus, Stem Cells, S-Chip, Obama’s budget, Tobacco bill, the supplemental, etc.). And they’re currently working out details on huge legislative endeavors (massive overhaul of the financial industry, healthcare reform, and the climate change bill). I’m not sure you could really expect ANY leader under the sun to move faster than the Democratic congress has on these issues.

    Secondly, Democrats are a more fractious bunch than Republicans, so building majority on big ticket items can be a challenge (though Reid has managed to do just that on several significant items so far this year, in the face of a pretty united front by the GOP). Moreover, to get anything done in the Senate you have to have 60 votes (which the Dems do not), and, in truth, they really can’t be said to have 59 votes on most issues because of the not insignificant number of solidly conservative Democrats (e.g., Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, etc.).

    Third, I think progressives in the U.S. have really deluded themselves into thinking that the country is more ready for their agenda than it is. Most middle-of-the-roaders are pretty skiddish on a lot of the large legislative initiatives being pushed right now, which means a lot of compromises are going to have to be made in order to move on these things. It’s a political reality and one I think the far left seems oblivious too.

  6. Marc,

    My apologies, my dislike of Reid isn’t as much for not leading the Democrats through bills, but rather on principles. If you go to my blog and just do a search for “Reid” you’ll see a couple of instances of what I’m talking about. For example, he was asked about what he thought about transferring Gitmo prisoners to the US, and he said:

    “QUESTION: If the United States — if the United States thinks that these people should be held, why shouldn’t they be held in the United States? Why shouldn’t the U.S. take those risks, the attendant risk of holding them, since it’s the one that says they should be held?

    REID: I think there’s a general feeling, as I’ve already said, that the American people, and certainly the Senate, overwhelmingly doesn’t want terrorists to be released in the United States. And I think we’re going to stick with that.

    QUESTION: What about in imprisoned in the United States?

    REID: If you’re…

    (CROSSTALK)

    REID: If people are — if terrorists are released in the United States, part of what we don’t want is them be put in prisons in the United States. We don’t want them around the United States.”

    I can expect a Republican to think this way, but the Democratic Senate Majority Leader?

    Reid and Pelosi both allowed the passage of the FISA bill that provided retroactive immunity to telecom companies who spied on Americans for the Bush administration!

    He’s shown time and time again that he cowers to Republican threats. As such, I just don’t want him there representing Democrats. I’d love it for someone else to defeat him in an election. Get him out of his soft, comfortable life, because he is failing badly.

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