Showing posts with label harry reid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label harry reid. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tom Hayes: Consequences of "gotcha politics" aimed at Senator Reid

Melissa Harris-Lacewell offers an excellent perspective in her piece "What Reid's Race Gaffe Tells Us About Inequality" today at The Nation. Nobody's surprised that the opposition party would leap on such a gaffe, but if they really want to accomplish change they'd be focused on more than one politician. The focus has clearly been a virtual frenzy - a "tar-and-feather the heathen" first, ask questions later approach - the sort of "gotcha" that McCain and other prominent GOP members famously claim to oppose.

Is Senator Reid above criticism? Absolutely not. His choice of language reveals something of his social context and the resultant view of the world. Clearly conversations about race in his circle are lacking, and his experience is insulated from the way most Americans live.

But creating what political theorist Nancy Fraser calls, "a difference-friendly world, where assimilation to majority or dominant cultural norms is no longer the price for equal respect," isn't what the elite right-wing strategists or the supporting talk-show punditocracy is calling for, (or presumably hoping to achieve.) Their goals appear much less lofty: attack the party of the President to weaken his political influence, one member of Congress at a time.

Naturally some of GOP politicos and voters are applauding the response to the gaffe. But rather than the tactics Americans who want to reclaim moral high-ground while rebuilding the leadership role for their country on the world stage need to succeed, these reveal a willingness to return to the arrogant do-anything, say-anything tactics of fear for short-term political advantage that most Americans voted to curtail in 2008.



Thomas Hayes
is an entrepreneur, journalist, and political analyst who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Senator Harry Reid: ‘I don’t work for Obama’

More at TheHill.com: “Democrats must be “very, very careful” to avoid overreaching and will not rubber-stamp President-elect Obama’s policies, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Hill, Reid said it is essential for Obama and congressional Democrats to work closely with Republicans in the new Congress. He added that 2009 is very different from 1993, the last time Democrats controlled both Congress and the White House.

Back then, Reid said, Democrats had controlled the House for decades and behaved as though the opposition did not exist. This time around, their recent stint in the minority would give them a commitment to bipartisanship.

“Even though we’re one short of 60 [senators in the Democratic Conference], I don’t want to ever have to depend on cloture,” Reid said. “We may have to do that, but it will be with the support of a few Republicans.”

Reid, who lambasted the GOP-led Congress for being a rubber stamp for President Bush, indicated that he will not bow to the Obama administration.

Reid stated, “I don't believe in the executive power trumping everything... I believe in our Constitution, three separate but equal branches of government.”

“If Obama steps over the bounds, I will tell him. … I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him,” he said.”

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Senator Harry Reid on 'Meet the Press' Sunday - Politics: The Early Line - Las Vegas Sun

More at Las Vegas Sun: “WASHINGTON -- Tune in Sunday morning when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is scheduled to be a guest on “Meet the Press” as the 111th Congress is about to begin.

Reid is expected to discuss the economic stimulus package Congress hopes to have passed and waiting for President-elect Barack Obama shortly after he’s sworn in Jan. 20, his own re-election campaign as well as the escalating drama over Obama’s successor in the Senate.”