Posted on 11/03/2012 2:16:30 AM PDT by Libloather
Reid: 'Laughable' for Romney to think Dems will pass his agenda
By Mike Lillis - 11/02/12 03:56 PM ET
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned Mitt Romney this week that upper-chamber Democrats would be no rubber stamp for Republican ideals if the GOP contender wins the White House next Tuesday.
The Nevada Democrat is pushing back against Romney's claims that he's better able to break Washington's partisan gridlock because he could work with congressional Democrats in ways President Obama wasn't able to work with Republicans.
The notion of working across the aisle has emerged as a key selling point for Romney, one that's won him a number of newspaper endorsements in recent weeks.
Reid on Friday warned that those endorsements might have been premature.
“Mitt Romney’s fantasy that Senate Democrats will work with him to pass his 'severely conservative' agenda is laughable," Reid said in a statement, referring to Romney's description of his own political leanings during the GOP primaries. "In fact, Mitt Romney’s Tea Party agenda has already been rejected in the Senate."
Reid noted that Senate Democrats this year have already shot down a number of proposals Romney has supported on the campaign trail, including GOP efforts to repeal Obama's healthcare reforms, cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans and eliminate the birth-control mandate for most employers.
Romney, Reid charged, “has demonstrated that he lacks the courage to stand up to the Tea Party, kowtowing to their demands time and again."
"There is nothing in Mitt Romney’s record to suggest he would act any differently as president," Reid added.
All sides agree that the emergence of entrenched partisanship on Capitol Hill in recent years has created a volatile political environment that's discouraged compromise and threatened the ability of Congress to perform even its most basic functions. Both parties have blamed the other for the gridlock, with GOP leaders accusing Obama of refusing to reach across the aisle and Democrats countering that Republican leaders have made defeating Obama their highest priority.
"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told National Journal just before the 2010 elections.
Romney, on the campaign trail, has packaged himself as the leader who could break the gridlock, arguing that, as governor of Massachusetts a decade ago, he was able to work with Democratic state leaders to get things done.
That strategy has paid dividends, as Iowa's Des Moines Register and the Detroit News have endorsed Romney in recent days, citing his record as a bipartisan dealmaker.
"Which candidate could forge the compromises in Congress to achieve these goals [of job creation and economic recovery]?" the Register's editorial board wrote last week. "When the question is framed in those terms, Mitt Romney emerges the stronger candidate."
Reid, however, disputes the notion that Romney has a good record of bipartisanship, saying the former Massachusetts governor "had a terrible relationship with Democrats" – a dynamic Reid predicts will continue if Romney wins the White House.
"In the near-decade that Mitt Romney has spent running for president, both his words and his actions have shown that pleasing the far right is more important to him than working across the aisle," Reid added. “Senate Democrats are committed to defending the middle class, and we will do everything in our power to defend them against Mitt Romney’s Tea Party agenda.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Reid's comments showed that the Senate majority leader recognized Romney's "momentum."
"While Senator Reid might want to continue Washington politics as usual, I'm confident that there are many Democrats who value balancing the budget, reducing burdensome regulations, investing in U.S. energy resources and will be willing to work with Governor Romney to help grow our stagnant economy," Priebus said in a statement.
All that gridlock could be busted by just denying a particulor Senator’s money to the folks back home. Need that Transportation money? Nope, that must go to Alaska for National Security reasons.
And we all know Reid has a terrific record of telling the truth about Romney.
(I shouldn't have to post the sarcasm tag.)
Make sure he has his name tag on his jacket when he leaves Washington
Hi my name is
Harry Ried
I live on 30 camel court
Benghazi Afganistan
Our only salvation is if we the people shock and awe our Congress critters into action to save our republic.
Unless the pressure is such that rat Senators force Dingy Harry to compromise, our slide into tyranny will continue.
The real work of conservatives will begin next Wednesday, November 7. At that time, we must begin unrelenting pressure on Congress to reverse the damage done by Obama and his rats.
Bold talk for the future minority leader
I think Reid has dementia
There’s probably a cell waiting for Harry...
This is exactly what it will take- giving Democrats a double dose of their own lawlessness until they see why we are supposed to be a nation of laws.
The party of “No.”
So he’s basically saying Romney is going to get elected. Gotta love this lib meltdown. It’s only just begun.
Wait until after the election - they’ll be pointing not fingers, but bayonets, at each other.
The way to end gridlock is to eliminate the offending vehicles blocking traffic
It would be fun to see how Hairy Reed would react if Romney decided to play Bronco Bama-ball with the Dems. They and the MSM would be squealing like piglets!
I interpret his remarks that he’s conceded the presidential election to Mitt but assumes they will keep the Senate.
I think this jerk is in for a surprise.
Any democrats running for senate have a huge anchor tied to their neck that will send them to the bottom. That anchor is obama.
Our state (ND) senate race was predicted to go democrat, but effective advertising tied that anchor to the candidates neck and now predicted by Politico to lose. So the DNC has pulled staffing support and called upon our states dem staff to help out in Iowa. Pure panic!
If the same effective advertising is in other states with Senate races, Republicans will have the same power obama had in 2008.
My thoughts too. This is at least the second time he has mentioned what would happen with Romney as President. Reid clearly believes that Romney is going to win the Presidency.
Well isn’t that nice of you Harry. Mitt then can declare everything by executive order and just point to how obama took care of things.....
I hope Romney has a list of names. I don't imagine there are any "progressives" on it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have invited you to this meeting because I think you are good people who have the best interests of America in your hearts. But your party leadership and a good number of your colleagues appear to have other interests. Out of party loyalty or because of pressure from your leadership, you may have voted in ways you know you should not have voted.
If I have not judged you correctly, if you really are on their side, you may leave. I believe they are holding their own meeting right now to determine how to keep their own interests above those of this country and how to prevent our success.
If you stay, you agree that we must move together to return this country to the greatness it has maintained for so many years."
I don’t know about that. He won by 5 points. I say the voters in Nevada are stupid as the reason moreso.
For Reid to make such comments not having worked with Romney, means to me Harry Reid needs to step down.
No because McConnell said that his chief goal is to make Obama a one-term President. This is all politics. I don’t want the liberals to start calling for Republicans to step down the next time a Republican says something similar when we have Democratic President.
Yes, he's getting prepared for the future.
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