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Harry Reid exit interview: Party fine & predicts end of fillibuster

Sardonicus

Sardonicus

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Reid predicts death of filibuster - POLITICO

Senate Democrats are about to get rolled on Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. They could spend years in the minority. And instead of the GOP collapse that many expected on Nov. 8, it’s now Democrats soul-searching about what went wrong.

But as Harry Reid prepares to leave the Senate this month after 34 years in Washington, he says everything is just fine with his party, thank you.


To hear Reid tell it, the party’s electoral collapse wasn’t a result of poor messaging or even a bad candidate. It stemmed from looser campaign finance rules, FBI Director James Comey and the influence of a few powerful individuals — namely the Koch brothers, his long-running nemeses. The outgoing Senate minority leader is unapologetic on behalf of his party, and remains resolute that Democrats don’t need to chart a new political course after their 2016 debacle.

“They have Trump, I understand that. But I don’t think the Democratic Party is in that big of trouble,” Reid said in a half-hour interview with Politico on Wednesday, one day before he’ll deliver his farewell address. “I mean, if Comey kept his mouth shut, we would have picked up a couple more Senate seats and we probably would have elected Hillary.”

Though the filibuster is Democrats’ best weapon against Trump, Reid said it would be a “mistake” for his party to reflexively oppose whatever Trump proposes. But the outgoing minority leader also wants Democrats to stand firm for their core principles, urging lawmakers to do “everything in their power” to block “wacky” Supreme Court nominees and to not be “complicit” in supporting GOP priorities like tax cuts for the rich and repealing Obamacare.

And Reid called a Republican senator a “loser” for his tirades against the Affordable Care Act, Reid’s signature legislative accomplishment as majority leader. It was a reprise of Reid's famous put-down of George W. Bush a decade ago.
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Yet another leader of the democrats continues to demonstrate complete tone deafness, which I suspect will go over as good news to their opponents. Between the attitudes of the Reid thinkers and the firm conviction that Clinton's loss was all about racism and the long lists of 'isms, ist and phobias' ? It may be some time before the democrats come to grips with the fact that their vehicle needs a complete overhaul, not just a new set of tires. The one thing that I can honestly say about the election of 2016 is that it will have the result of fundamentally altering both political parties. That just happened to the GOP and we will be seeing a lot of it happening to their party under Trump. I predict that a lot like the republicans, the democrats are not going to like a lot of it. It just may take them a little while to get over their denial to judge by what we are seeing as their so called "analysis" of their loss to Trump.
 
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Though the filibuster is Democrats’ best weapon against Trump, Reid said it would be a “mistake” for his party to reflexively oppose whatever Trump proposes. But the outgoing minority leader also wants Democrats to stand firm for their core principles, urging lawmakers to do “everything in their power” to block “wacky” Supreme Court nominees and to not be “complicit” in supporting GOP priorities like tax cuts for the rich and repealing Obamacare.
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Almost sounds like progress until you get to "everything in their power."
 
Fiddytree said:
Almost sounds like progress until you get to "everything in their power."
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This and other pronouncements from the usual suspects only looks to me like the dems are just going to double down and recommit to the same approach that got them here.
 
Sardonicus said:
This and other pronouncements from the usual suspects only looks to me like the dems are just going to double down and recommit to the same approach that got them here.
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Sure, but they are also more explicitly taking inspiration from the Tea Party, most specifically the Freedom Caucus, for how to conduct themselves as minorities in the legislature. It's not looking good for mature leadership.

If you want to make Trump and/or the Republican Party look uncivilized or ruinous to good governance, it's not a good idea to replicate the behaviors that you found despicable as late as last month.
 
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