Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, AR) has let it be known that Obama is to
blame for the Democrats' historic loss in this midterm election. This is
surprising since Reid has been Obama's legislative wing man, shielding him from
any embarrassing legislative missteps.
The Republicans were erroneously painted as the cause for lack of productivity
in Congress, while Harry Reid was the major obstructionist. The Republican
controlled House of Representatives passes over 380 pieces of legislation on a
wide variety of important topics that wound up under Reid's table, never being
considered in the Senate. Even Sen. Mark Begich (D, AK) complained that the
Senate Majority Leader prevented him from offering amendments to legislation.
Reid also opted for the "nuclear option" (changing the votes necessary for
Obama's nominees to various positions, including judicial vacancies, from
super-majority to simple majority) again to help Obama get judicial and political
nominees approved. He didn't seem to worry what would happen if he was suddenly
Minority Leader.
The Senate under Harry Reid's leadership, has failed year after year to fulfill
their legal responsibility to produce a budget. Obama's budgets were routinely
defeated in a bipartisan fashion. Reid felt the possible bad publicity from a
proposed budget would reflect badly on Democrats.
Reid/Obama repeatedly put off implementation of or consideration of bills they
knew would create public backlash until after elections every two years for
purely political reasons, never mind the actual needs of the country.
Harry Reid deserves as much of the blame for the anti-Democrat reaction of the
American voter as Obama, who declared his ideological agenda to be front and
center on the ballot.
Republicans now have a chance to make Congress function properly and put
necessary legislation on Obama's desk to see who creates the obstruction.
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