Yes, Harry Reid’s Senate has been coined the “Cirque du Senate” by a writer for the New York times for hijinks that are causing tempers to reach a boiling point.
They’ve got “trash-talking, whining and finger-pointing, bickering and, occasionally, brief flashes of serious disagreement on policy”. Not to mention cartwheels and puppets:
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic majority leader, on Thursday proposed doing cartwheels down the center aisle of the Senate chamber to draw attention to Republican efforts to block legislation.
Mr. Reid, who turned 68 on Sunday and power-walks four miles a day, ultimately did not perform any gymnastics. But his fury over the inability to move the Democrats’ legislative agenda seemed to have deepened since Tuesday, when he accused President Bush of “pulling the strings on the 49 puppets he has here in the Senate.”
Jeez, I wonder what mall, Reid power walks at, that’s pretty good for a 68 year old.
That reference to the Republicans, in a speech on the Senate floor, prompted Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, to accuse Mr. Reid of violating a rule prohibiting senators from imputing “any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator.”
“It is my view that being called a puppet is in direct violation of that rule,” Mr. Specter said. He added: “I wonder if he is up to the job when he resorts to that kind of a statement, which only furthers the level of rancor.”
I’ve been wondering if he’s been up to the job for some time, actually. I think announcing that the Iraq war was lost, last May before the surge was even fully in place did it for me.
Sith Lord Cheney was asked by The Politico, what it was like to work with Mr. Reid. Cheney said:
“Difficult. He’s — I’ll leave it at that. He’s difficult.”
The result of Reid’s manner of doing business is that nothing is getting done.
Things are so bad between Mr. Reid and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, that in some cases they even fight about whether they are fighting about something.
But the Democrats are at least determined to complete their budget work before the December recess:
Conceding that President Bush is in a strong position as Congress seeks to wrap up its work, Democrats are cooking up a pre-Christmas endgame that would deliver tens of billions of dollars for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan on conditions acceptable to the White House.
The Iraq funding would ultimately be attached by Bush’s Senate GOP allies to a $500 billion-plus “omnibus” appropriations bill taking shape in closed-door talks. That’s the only way they would let the measure advance through the Senate.
Cementing GOP leverage, Senate Republicans are poised to filibuster any omnibus bill that fails to contain Iraq funds. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster in the Senate, which Democrats control by just one vote.
“The fact of the matter is that Harry Reid cannot get 60 votes for any omnibus or appropriations bill without some agreement on (Iraq),” Hoyer told reporters. “He’s told me that.”
So this is how the Dems fund the troops; by “reluctantly” adding the funding on to the omnibus appropriations bill because the Republicans will filibuster it if they don’t, which is, of course designed to fool the nutroots into believing the evil Republicans forced them into it.
The Republicans are trying to prevent any domestic add ons to this spending bill.
That is unless, Dingy Harry’s cartwheels get in their way.
Hat Tip: Lucianne
Nice Deb 