Having your leader defeated in an election is obviously embarrassing for a political party. Republicans crowed for weeks after Democratic leader Tom Daschle was defeated in a close election in 2004, and it’s been looking like the same was likely to happen to Harry Reid.
Now, Reid has a new breath of life with news that the Tea Party has qualified as a third party in Nevada and will have a candidate in the Senate race. That could easily split the Republican vote.
That brings up a tough question for me, given Reid’s ineffectiveness as majority leader. In the long run, will it be worse for the Democrats if he loses, or if he wins? I have to say, I think it would be worth the embarrassment of losing two majority leaders in 4 elections if it would mean Reid is no longer leading Democrats.
There’s not much to say about
Joe Lieberman’s statement that he’ll vote to filibuster a health reform bill that has a provision for a public option. First of all, I’m sick of hearing about Joe Lieberman. Second of all, this is really not about Lieberman — it’s more about Harry Reid, the Democrats’ ineffectual majority leader.
Lieberman’s position on this isn’t much of a surprise, and nobody should really be blindsided by it. I sure hope Reid was never counting on conservative Democrats like Lieberman and Mary Landrieu to be supportive of the public option. Regardless of their positions, though, Reid’s job is to figure out how to get the votes. Don’t have full support of your party? Figure out how to get it, even if that means hard-ball bargaining with fellow Democrats. Don’t have 60 Democrats? Then find a way to get a few Republicans on board, or look at passing the bill through budget reconciliation. Ultimately, the point is that Reid needs to get this bill passed, however he has to do it.
Look, I know Reid’s job is hard. I know that, sometimes, we’re just not going to get the votes we need. But Reid has consistently had a lot of trouble getting the votes and the party unity he needs. This really isn’t about Joe Lieberman — he’ll most likely be out of the Senate after this term anyway. This is about whether Harry Reid has what it takes to get something done in the Senate.
People Are Shouting
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