Bill Scher: Reid’s Bold Move

from TomPaine.com:


Reid’s Bold Move

Submitted by Bill Scher on July 17, 2007 - 12:57am.


When you’re Senate Majority Leader, everyone’s fighting for your ear. Today, the netroots had Harry Reid’s ear, instead of the punditocracy.

This blog has long been calling for Senate leaders to fight for bold, popular legislation and stand up to those blocking its passage -- instead of flinching at filibusters, chasing unprincipled compromises and accommodating the conservative minority.

We launched the petition last month urging Reid to do just that.

And many other bloggers -- including Digby, Taylor Marsh, Open Left, Booman Tribune, ThinkProgress, Miles Mogulescu, FireDogLake, Leisure Guy, The Next Hurrah, The Carpetbagger Report, Tangled Webs, Billy Creek, Politits, Talking Points Memo, South Georgia Liberal, Pygalgia, The Newshoggers, The Sideshow, Seeing The Forest and Blue Jersey -- have rallied around the effort.

In the other corner is the punditocracy -– represented by folks like New York Times’ David Brooks, Washington Post’s David Ignatius and Time’s Joe Klein. In particular, Brooks recently accused Reid of thwarting a biparistan consensus to change course (but remain) in Iraq, for political purposes.

For six months, the Senate leadership largely took the counsel of the punditocracy. Bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake. Compromise for compromise’s sake. The argument was that’s the only way to responsibly govern and win the respect of the electorate.

But it was a bust. Despite all the efforts to water down legislation and curry the favor of the conservative minority, conservatives obstructed most everything anyway.

Few voters realize this, because these filibusters have been mere minutes long, if even that much. If Democrats couldn’t get 60 votes to break a filibuster, they would simply pull legislation off the floor, or not bother to put it on the floor. When Democrats avoid conflict, the media ignore the story, and with it, the conservative obstructions.

Conservatives were able to block popular legislation, without the public knowing about it. There was no political risk taken, no political price paid.

After seeing congressional approval drop below Bushian levels, Reid and his peers have apparently concluded the punditocracy doesn’t know what it’s talking about. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/reid_s_bold_move?tx=3