Harry Reid slams GOP & the press indirectly for Washington gridlock
It was surprising that MSNBC did not edit out two instances in the exclusive interview that Chuck Todd had with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). The interview was in the standard Senator Harry Reid mild mannered format. However he did not mince words for Republicans, the press, journalism, or Chuck Todd.
He showed the heartlessness of Republican Senator David Vitter (R-LA) for wanting to take away healthcare from staffers and other Congressional employees. When Chuck Todd attempted to spin it by alluding to some other motive for Senator Vitter’s heartlessness, Senator Harry Reid justifiably snapped back.
“It’s getting healthcare,” Senator Harry Reid said. “Don’t be playing his game. He wanted to stop staff from getting healthcare. That’s what he wanted.” Chuck Todd visibly shaken for being called out tacitly conceded.
Employers provide health insurance throughout the country. Why should the government as a major employer not do it as well?
The most profound slamming of the media came a bit later. That segment was placed in the front of the video excerpt above.
Chuck Todd said that there was a bipartisan criticism of both Senate and Congressional leaders. Senator Harry Reid came to his own defense by enumerating all the things he did that made the criticism on his part unjustifiable. He implied that he encourages his meddlers in chief and named a few, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Tom Carper (D-DE). He said he made his committees stronger. As such the Senate has not had a single task force under his leadership.
Senator Harry Reid said that the problem is that Republicans block everything. He singled out Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) as a major culprit who other Republicans fear bucking.
Chuck Todd responded with the typical childish, false equivalence, irresponsible retort of it seeming to be a tit for tat battle between Democrats and Republicans. Senator Harry Reid in his mild mannered form exploded on that rather poor attempt of false balance.
“One of the problems the press has in modern day journalism is everything you do is a tit for tat,” Senator Harry Reid said. “You won’t call things the way they actually exist. What has happened here is the Republicans have stopped everything from happening. And there is no question, that that meeting took place. There was an agreement made. We know who was there. They know what has happened since then.”
Senator Harry Reid was referring to a meeting every journalist is now aware of on the day President Obama was inaugurated. The following was reported by the Huffington Post.
As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington.
The event — which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured — serves as the prologue of Robert Draper’s much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives.”
According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) — who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz.
For several hours in the Caucus Room (a high-end D.C. establishment), the book says they plotted out ways to not just win back political power, but to also put the brakes on Obama’s legislative platform.
“If you act like you’re the minority, you’re going to stay in the minority,” Draper quotes McCarthy as saying. “We’ve gotta challenge them on every single bill and challenge them on every single campaign.”
It is journalistic heresy and derelict of duty that they have not reported about the intransigence of the Republicans in that context. To continue the false equivalence has hurt the country and destroyed the financial well-being of millions.
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Within power political circles–and in his home State–Senator Reid is known as “Give ’em Hell, Harry!” There’s a reason for that, and that reason has lasted throughout Senator Reid’s political career. The idea is that, if you can get him riled up spontaneously, he loses control and becomes an embarrassment for his party. Wrong! Time, after time, this is when Reid let’s loose with a carefully measured, controlled dollop of embarrassing truth, and most often truth about his political opposition.
It’s like giving a vicious guard dog permission to snap!