Headlining memeorandum, this story:
Nearly half of Nevadans have had enough of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as the powerful Democrat heads into his re-election campaign, a new Las Vegas Review-Journal poll finds.
About a third of the state’s voters would re-elect Reid if the 2010 election were held today, according to the poll, but 45 percent say they would definitely vote to replace him. Seventeen percent would consider another candidate.
About that. Two Harry Reid stories. The first, from today:
But the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, seemed to ramp up the concerns of Congressional Democrats, insisting during a news conference that lawmakers would never allow the terror suspects to be released into the United States and suggesting that they would never allow them to be transferred to American prisons.
“Guantanamo makes us less safe,” Mr. Reid said. “However this is neither the time nor the bill to deal with this. Democrats under no circumstances will move forward without a comprehensive, responsible plan from the president. We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States.”
Pressed to explain if that meant they could not be transferred to American prisons, Mr. Reid said: “We don’t want is them to be put in prisons in the United States. We don’t want them around the United States.
Congratulations. That was the best impression of a fearmongering Republican wingnut that I have seen in a long time.
The second, in video format:
Yeah. It would just break my heart if Harry Reid loses.
Dave C
Who is next in line to be Senate Majority leader if Reid goes? If it’s somebody decent, I’ll actively root for Reid’s opponent!
slag
Primary challenger needed. Stat!
robertdsc
As long as Reid’s there, the Senate is where change goes to die.
Linus
Nate Silver has it ranked as the Senate race most likely to change parties. I wonder if that would be more or less likely to occur if there were a contender for the Democratic primary.
Bubblegum Tate
Mark Noonan of BlogsforVictory is going to take a run at Reid’s Senate seat. Personally, I think that is going to be one wacky candidacy, and I can’t wait for it to get underway.
SGEW
If Pelosi and Reid were to lose their leadership positions . . . that would be change I could believe in!
scott
What a maroon. To quote:
REID: I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.
QUESTION: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.
REID: Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.
Bubblegum Tate
Uhhh….touche.
Ooops, my mistake. I meant douche.
Fencedude
How about a recall? Just in this one specific case.
On account of being utterly feckless.
Comrade Darkness
@scott, well, this is sort of true. They are in this invented legal limbo state and that would have to nullified. But I’m seriously not an expert on this. Just don’t think his statements rise to the level of a Bugs Bunny insult. *shrugs*
No fan of the way he’s run the senate, either, btw.
ronathan richardson
Do any of the netroots leaders (by which I mean Markos) have a plan for how to deal with this? We can’t primary him without inducing a circular firing squad; he’s probably going to lose; he’ll command a lot of wasted 2010 campaign money; and above all, for the party to have any intellectual or public credibility, they have to let him go.
Oh, and that Yucca video is a tad bit wingnutty, Johnny boy. I think we should expand nuclear energy, but there are scientific concerns with the place being built on a fault line, and transportation of nuclear waste is a bit dangerous. It’s really up to the people of Nevada to decide this one. You can frame it as Harry Reid resisting progress, which isn’t totally false, but it’s also Harry Reid standing up for the people of his state to keep it from being a nuclear dumping ground. But man it’s a tough issue.
JGabriel
“Scientists” say Yucca Mountain is the solution to our nuclear waste disposal problems?
I’m already questioning the validity of that CNN report. It makes it sound like there’s a consensus there that I really doubt exists.
Edited to add: Agreed with ronathan (above) that the report is a bit (or even more than a bit) wingnutty.
.
oh really
The possibility that Reid might lose (I hope, I hope, I hope) demands that the Democrats start preparing for new leadership.
In keeping with their (recent) past record of choosing charismatic, committed progressives, I recommend either Ben Nelson or long-time Democrat Arlen Specter (should he weasel his way into another term). Either one could carry on for Harry without missing a beat.
Since the Democrats are too stupid to replace Reid on their own, it is up to the people of Nevada to do the job. Unfortunately, that will mean another Right Wing Nutjob from Nevada in the Senate, but there is no doubt in my mind that the absence of Reid, no matter who replaces him, will be a net gain for Democrats. There are very few current Democratic senators who are likely to provide strong leadership, so I imagine if forced to choose another leader they’ll reach down deep…and scrape the bottom of the barrel.
MikeJ
The real problem is that the Republicans always choose leaders from safe seats so they can play to the base. Dems always choose leaders from marginal seats to prop up chances of getting an extra seat.
joe from Lowell
Dick Durbin is next in line.
I’m hoping the Dems take 4 or 5 Republican seats, but Reid and Specter lose.
Senate Majority Leader Durbin, with 63 votes. I can live with that.
JGabriel
@MikeJ:
Count me skeptical. Pelosi’s district in San Francisco is hardly a ‘marginal’ Democratic seat. Nor is Illinois a marginally Democratic state.
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Napoleon
Reid is a complete POS. If he gets a legit primary challenger that could beet him I would be so tempted to max out contributing to his challenger.
I read in the last week where so and so in the Bush administration received senate approval with 53 votes and yet Reid will not bring Dawn Johnson to a vote because she will only receive 59 votes.
He is a complete POS.
Dennis-SGMM
@Dave C:
The selection of a Majority Leader definitely isn’t based on seniority. Reid is 21st in overall seniority. Robert Byrd is first, followed by Kennedy, Inouye, and Leahy.
Reid echoing the RW Noise Machine is unconscionable. He’s been at best a lackluster Majority Leader. Sadly, it says more about Senate Democrats than it does about Reid that he’s still in the job. They are still pretending that the Senate is a non-confrontational debating society while it’s already turned into a street fight.
Laura W
EightNine substantial posts in ten hours. Who could’ve predicted that?Nice to see you taking some Me Time, John.
Promises Promises
(Please note the timely themes of naked, showering in prison, and the floor scrubbing on knees. This is just too perfect a link to believe, frankly.)
SGEW
Less bipartisanship, more gutta-percha cane beatings?
geg6
Fuck that piece of limp shit Reid. I don’t care who beats his wimpy ass, Republican or Democrat, I just hope somebody does. Dick Durbin would be about a thousand times better as majority leader and his relationships with Obama and Rahm would make getting things done in the Senate would only be the cherry on top.
MikeJ
Should have narrowed it to the Senate. North Dakota isn’t a Dem stronghold.
103rd Congress (1993-1995)
Majority Leader: George J. Mitchell (D-ME)
Minority Leader: Robert Dole (R-KS)
104th Congress (1995-1997)
Majority Leader: Robert Dole (R-KS); Trent Lott (R-MS)
Minority Leader: Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD)
105th Congress (1997-1999)
Majority Leader: Trent Lott (R-MS)
Minority Leader: Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD)
106th Congress (1999-2001)
Majority Leader: Trent Lott (R-MS)
Minority Leader: Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD)
107th Congress (2001-2003)
Majority Leader: Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD)
Minority Leader: Trent Lott (R-MS)
108th Congress (2003-2005)
Majority Leader: William H. Frist (R-TN)
Minority Leader: Thomas A. Daschle (D-SD)
109th Congress (2005-2007)
Majority Leader: William H. Frist (R-TN)
Minority Leader: Harry M. Reid (D-NV)
110th Congress (2007-2009)
Majority Leader: Harry M. Reid (D-NV)
Minority Leader: Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
111th Congress (2009-2011)
Majority Leader: Harry M. Reid (D-NV)
Minority Leader: Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
NSinNY
It’s fairer to say that Senate Dems always choose leaders from marginal seats (Daschle and Reid stand out). Part of the justification might be that they can keep the seat blue by advertising the incumbent’s clout, but in practice, it seems to just stamp them with the mark of the establishment, which is never a good thing.
But, truly, good riddance. Better a Republican than a half-dem pantywaist intent on lulling the caucus to sleep. Any Nevadans have a sense of whether there are primary contenders?
Fencedude
How about Majority Leader Al Franken?
He can do joint press conferences with Barney Frank and every Wingnut’s mind across the internet will explode.
Alan
@ronathan richardson:
Yeah, heaven forbid a mountain might fall on top of it.
NR
Nevada is a lot bluer than it used to be. Surely the Nevada Dems can do a lot better than Reid.
I mean, I don’t like Ben Nelson, but he’s the best we’re going to get out of deep red Nebraska. Reid has no excuse.
kay
This is vintage Harry Reid. He’s all puffed up aserting his independence against the Democratic President, just as he did when he created the Burris mess.
He never, ever went to bat against Bush, but he’s hell-bent to oppose Obama. He’s worse than useless: he’s a menace.
I decided a long time ago that he must be corrupt, and being blackmailed, but, then, I watched McCain and Reid collude to cover up the Abramoff criminality, at “hearings”.
Dulcie
Native Nevadan here. There are no potential primary contenders. None. Nada. Zilch.
Harry has been a good represenative for his constituency here in Nevada, and has championed our causes, especially Yucca Mountain.
However, he may be good at knowing the arcane points of senate procedure, but he’s been a piss poor advocate for the Democratic Party as a whole.
The problem in Nevada is that everyone is pissed at all of our politicians. Our governor is a buffoon, who is going through a very public and bitter divorce, and attempted to reject stimulus money, which pissed everyone off.
We have a huge budget shortfall, and they’re talking about raising rates at all public colleges and universities, as well as firing hundreds of teachers because we have no money. Peopel are hurting and angry, and Harry happens to be one of our most visible politicians.
Obama will be here next week for a huge fundraiser at Caesars Palace for Harry’s re-election campaign. We’ll see what happens to Harry’s numbers post-Obama visit.
tammanycall
Majority Leader Russ Feingold?
kay
@Dulcie:
What a shame.
Dennis-SGMM
@SGEW:
Fuck gutta-percha canes, bring crowbars or, even better, rigging axes. Some Dem needs to start channeling Lyndon Johnson and make it clear to the Republicans and the Blue Dogs that if they want federal funding for so much as an outhouse they play along on important legislation or else.
Dulcie
@kay: It really is a shame. The seat will go republican for sure if Harry’s poll numbers don’t improve. And then we’ll be stuck with another fucktard like Senator Ensign.
Old Gringo
Harry only needs 51 % of the vote to retain his seat.
Pelosi is in no danger of losing her job.
kay
@Dulcie:
I’m to the point where I’d rather lose. I really can’t bear Reid. I read a long piece on him about 2 years ago, and was amazed.
There is nothing evident in his early adulthood that would indicate he would turn out to be such a complete jerk, is all I can say.
Mousebumples
As a Wisconsinite, I’d support that. He does his share of pandering to the base (especially in the past few months, since he’s up for re-election in 2010), but I was a big fan of the Constitutional Amendment he proposed a few months back. (He wanted all Senate vacancies to be filled via special election – which is how we do things here in Wisconsin. 538 has more details here, in an old post.)
Of course, just because he proposed an intelligent amendment, that doesn’t mean that he’ll have the balls to be a strong Majority Leader for the Dems. We need a Majority Leader who will actually make the Republican’ts read from the phone book (or whatever) if they want to claim filibuster. Yeah, it’ll slow things down and not much will get done. But … how much are we getting accomplished in the Senate now?
kay
@Dulcie:
It’s yet another hissy fit.
Turns out, they were angry that Holder didn’t “bring them in” on “planning”, so they sent Reid out to repeat Republican talking points.
That’ll learn that Eric Holder.
Pure genuis. Harry Reid is a master strategist.
Now anything short of shackling these people and throwing them off a bridge will be termed “releasing terrorists”.
Old Gringo
I should amend that. Harry beat Ensign in 1998 with 48% of the vote.
Dulcie
@kay: I agree. There’s nothing in his background that would make you think he’d turn out to be such a disappointment. He came from really poor circumstances in Searchlight, Nevada. He worked his way through college and law school. He worked on the gaming control board when all of the casinos were mob run, and wasn’t afraid to take them on.
I think Washington does something to people. I think term limits are a bad idea, but I do think that being in Washington as long as Harry Reid, or Arlen Spector, for that matter, changes who a person is.
I’m really mad at him today over the entire not funding of Gitmo thing. He and the rest of the dems have totally bought into Republican framing. He sounded ridiculous today trying to defend the decision. If we bring the detainees here, we’ll have to release them? Really? I hate being played for a fool, and that was an incredibly foolish statement.
Dulcie
@kay: Good Lord – are they trying to sound whiny like their stupid counterparts across the aisle? Jesus Wept.
Eric Holder was meeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn to us. He didn’t listen to us. Getting dems together on anything is like herding cats.
Dulcie
@Old Gringo: That election was incredibly close. Ensign reminds me of Governor Goodhair (Rick Perry). All hat and no cattle, so to speak! Did you know that Ensign is a veterinarian?
kay
@Dulcie:
I remember the struggle to attend law school, in the piece I read. He ran out of money third year, and barely finished, right?
All that struggle and he somehow believes that our federal prison system involves some crazy “release then catch again” process.
Is he not ashamed to spout this nonsense? He knows better.
kay
@Dulci’s e:
It’s healthy, in a good-government way. They SHOULD have some role in constructing some reasonable and sane system to deal with these people.
Isn’t this so babyish, though? Why not go to Holder with an alternate plan? And, for God’s sake, don’t let Reid do the talking.
They’re really pleased with themselves. They stood up to that Barack Obama!
Dulcie
@kay: Yeah, like my eight year old niece is pleased with herself when she thinks she’s tricked me into buying her something I was going to buy her anyway!
We have two parties – one who acts like they’re 7 years old and haven’t taken their nap, and the other one is 6 and thinks the 7 year olds are going to give them wedgies if they don’t go along with their crazy plans. Do the dems not get that they’re in the majority now?
JGabriel
Alan:
Dude, are you that ignorant? Criticality – i.e., nuclear chain reactions – are achieved through proximity and/or compression. That’s why there’s all sorts of rules about how much waste can be stored in a barrel and how far apart each barrel must be from the others, etc.
So, yeah, a mountain falling on nuclear waste could be a: Really. Bad. Thing.
.
Dulcie
@kay: Yep, he almost didn’t finish. One of our former governors, Mike O’Callahan, took an interest in Harry and helped him pay for the rest of his schooling. Mike was his high school basketball coach, before he went into politics.
I met him when he was the governor. I won a spelling bee when I was in 6th grade, and got to shake his hand, take a photo with him, and received a small gold pin :-)
I think I was the only AA in the competition!
Alan
@JGabriel: Well yes, I’m as ignorant as the engineers that designed the storage. Silly ain’t it–every container would be strategically placed so if the mountain collapsed a chain reaction would initiate.
evinfuilt
Just as an FYI, the containers the nuclear “Waste” is stored in are designed for some of the most far-out considerations (high speed train impact while on a high speed train; nuclear attack;) these things aren’t flimsy. As bad as a mountain cave in would be, well, they already thought of that. That cave is the best place we have to store the “waste”, but the real solution is to build Breeder Reactors and relegalize the recycling of this stuff.
That just isn’t a hole in the ground, its a modern engineering marvel that few can respect or grasp. Its beyond NORAD in its protection.
Bob In Pacifica
Don’t worry. I’m sure Harry will find work on K Street.
Wile E. Quixote
@scott
Is this how things work in Nevada? I mean when someone is convicted of a crime in Las Vegas and scheduled to be transferred from the Las Vegas Jail to the Nevada State Prison does the LVPD just let them go and then call up the guys at the prison and say “Hey, we just let OJ loose. Could you catch him and lock him up in the big house? Thanks.”
Wile E. Quixote
@JGabriel
Dude, are you that completely and totally ignorant and retarded? Criticality – i.e., nuclear chain reactions are really, really, really difficult, read “impossible” to achieve when you’ve surrounded the nuclear material with a huge multi-ton steel and concrete cask that is designed to stand up to being hit with a runaway train.
I wish I knew where you lived. I’d come over to your house and disconnect your dumb ass from the grid by pulling your power meter. Dildos like you shouldn’t be allowed to have electricity, you’ll just do something stupid with it like post nonsense on teh intertoobz or decide to toast Pop-Tarts in the shower or something.
I’ve asked you this before but are you sure you’re not a wingnut? I mean you’ve got the stupid down, why the comment you made above is every bit as stupid as Harry Reid’s comments about closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Congratulations, you deserve a reward for posting something so stupid, ignore what I said about Pop Tarts and showering, plug in the toaster, grab that box of Pop Tarts and your rubber ducky, turn the water on and hop right in. Go ahead, go nuts, just make sure that you use a really heavy duty extension cord, and if your toaster runs off of 220v or 440 3-phase so much the better.
Comrade Kevin
@evinfuilt:
Is there some particular reason you put scare quotes around the word waste?
Mike G
“We don’t want is terrorists to be put in prisons in the United States.”
Where the fuck does Reid think we have been keeping those convicted of the 1993 WTC bombing?
Remember that one – a terrorist attack where we actually caught the leading perpetrators?
But pissing your pants is the Repig kindergarten-stupid means of proving your “toughness” in Washington.
asiangrrlMN
Yeah, I would be so very, very, very heartbroken if Reid were to lose his seat. Why, I might even shed a tiny tear for poor, poor, poor Harry.
hidflect
@JGabriel:
hahhaaa.. Nice putdown. Saves me losing patience with these people myself…
From all I’ve read and heard about Yucca Mountain it’s a blasted wasteland with almost no life and is the perfect place to dump the waste. Even if someone was to accidentally try and walk out there a 1000 years from now when its dump has been long forgotten, they’d die of dehydration long before they got there…
Old Gringo
@Dulcie
His name is Ensign and he’s a vet?
He’s the perfect candidate!
bob h
I see. The WTC and Pentagon were not in the US.
Ash Can
@Dulcie:
Hmm…makes me wonder. Is Harry’s Republican-Lite bluster only words? Or is Obama taking notes in the meantime — “Oh, Harry, sorry. Something came up at the last minute, and I can’t make your fundraiser. I’m sure you’ll wow ’em on your own, though. Good luck.” Of course, Obama, being a politician himself, may just be chalking Harry’s antics up to Politics As Usual (TM), and will proceed to fundraise for him as if nothing had happened. But it does make me wonder.
@joe from Lowell:
@geg6:
At the risk of sounding like a thorough, insufferable homer (well, OK, I am, but still) this prospect tickles me pink. Durbin’s been a fine senator, and it’s about damned time we had a Senate majority leader who acted like a Senate majority leader, and not the den mother of a Cub Scout pack.
sloan
How the hell is this “releasing terrorists in America” talking point alive after all these years?
This is so obviously easy to refute, yet Dems are somehow unable to grow a spine a simply state: “These detainees will still be in military custody. Nothing would change.” Republicans are implying that our military would pull some kind of Laurel and Hardy routine and release the Gitmo prisoners into Disneyland on the 4th of July.
We have military prisons in America. We have Supermax prisons in America. We are the prison capital of the world. How does the GOP get away with pretending not to know this? Here is a short list of known terrorists currently imprisoned on US soil: Omar Abdel-Rahman, Islamic terrorist, nicknamed “The Blind Sheik”; involved in 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Theodore Kaczynski,The “Unabomber”. Richard Reid, Islamic terrorist, nicknamed the “Shoe Bomber”. Ramzi Yousef, Islamic terrorist, 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mahmud Abouhalima, Islamic Mujahideen leader, 1993 World Trade Center bombing implication and conviction.
Those guys are all in ADX Florence. They are never getting out, period. If Gitmo detainees ultimately end up there or Leavenworth or where ever they are held there is just no way in hell they’re going to escape. It’s a non-issue, and an insult to the military to suggest otherwise.
And Harry Reid – WTF? It’s bad enough that he looks and sounds like a pushover, but does he have to act like one too? How is he getting bullied by Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck on this? Gitmo is as secure as a wet paper bag compared to our Supermax facilities and yet we’re still being force-fed these outright lies regarding our supposed inability to keep someone in US custody.
Old habits die hard, I guess. It’s not just the wingnuts who believe that crap. There are traumatized Dems who still don’t realize the country has changed and we don’t have to put up with it anymore. So sad. We have much work to do.
IndieTarheel
Yes, because we transfer people from one facility to another and in the process they always escape. Just like an episode of CSI: Miami.I’m beginning to think these people’s brains have already been turned to tapioca.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@JGabriel:
Criticality isn’t an issue. You’re not going to get a China Syndrome event, much less any boomage, if the mountain collapses (which it wouldn’t, although the cavern in which the material is stored might). What you will get is leakage of radioactive material into the local environment, which will be toxic for thousands of years.
The hope is that storing at remote places like Yucca buys us enough time to figure out a better way to either reuse the material or render it safe(r).
oh really
All indications are that Obama genuinely supports Reid as both senator and majority leader. As far as I can tell, he’s never done anything but fully back Hapless Harry. It’s one of the prime bits of evidence suggesting just how un-progressive (conventional might be a better word) Obama really is.
omen
that skit on rachel that suggested reid got spooked by (oooh) republican scary music was hilarious.
omen
@oh really:
It’s one of the prime bits of evidence suggesting just how un-progressive (conventional might be a better word) Obama really is.
what did you think of obama’s nuke program?
Tommy Corn
FWIW, Durbin was one of only 6 that voted against the Guantanamo amendment. Kudos also to Leahy, Levin, Reed, Whitehouse, and Harkin.
nicteis
Harry Reid is just upholding an old Democratic party tradition. Didn’t FDR said the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?
So Harry feels not the slightest twinge of real apprehension about holding terrorists in stateside jails. But as a loyal Democrat, he’s sure afraid of fear. He remains stone terrified of the fear Republicans will be able to inspire with their ‘release terraists on our streets’ imagery. For just as long as Dems quake at the knees every time the GOP waves – or might just possibly wave – the Mighty Flag of Guess Who Knows How To Scare The Voters – our congressional leadership will continue to behave like gelded sheep.
Comrade Luke
If he’s in danger of losing his seat, why wouldn’t he just change parties at the last minute to avoid a primary challenge and win as a Republican?
Sure he’d lose the Majority leadership, but these guys don’t care about anything other than being reelected.
He’d still be in power, and you can bet that the Republicans would throw all sorts of incentives at him if he switched.