Harry Reid: Been carrying this in my wallet a long time. ...

[Tx4obama]

Senator Harry ?@SenatorReid

Been carrying this in my wallet a long time. It shows you how long Republicans have been wrong about health care. pic.twitter.com/28wUy9Fjls

https://twitter.com/SenatorReid/status/384826839350251520/photo/1

[pacalo]

1. K&R.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Recommended. (nt)

[Nevernose]

3. Harry Reid is a good man and a good Democrat

He's often too "realpolitik" for DU and often for me, but this is a guy who stared down the mob in their heyday: he can and will wheel and deal with the best of them, but no one is going to push him around.

[joshcryer]

4. Listening to him speak, he's like a nice little old man.

Who wants the right thing for people.

[Nevernose]

6. He is. Droopy Dog, in fact.

And I often think he's too eager to compromise; rarely do I remember that compromise is a politician's job. But I am PROUDLY a far left partisan, LOL.

However, this tiny little dude was a championship football player, a golden gloves boxer, considered to be a brilliant student (from several shitty neighborhoods), and is the guy most credited with breaking up the mob in Nevada. They put a bomb in his wife's car -- tried to kill his family -- and he kept after them as if nothing had happened.

[joshcryer]

9. When we lost the public option...

...you could see the disappointment in his words. I mean, his written words of him speaking, you could just feel it. It went something like "we don't have the votes for the public option so we're going without it."

Really something.

[Cerridwen]

13. Hiya, josh. I've met the man.

"little old man?"

Not bloody likely. He's a political player from the "old school."

Is he quiet rather than bombastic? Yep. It's what "sells" out here. Or it did; back when he was first running and before the seniors brought their fucking teabagging brats out here.

Does he hide his "light under a bushel?" That's how we play it out here. Anything else is considered boorish and uncouth. Harry is "old school." Oh yes, and "play your cards close to your vest."

He'll politely eviscerate you as he smiles and offers you another beer.

There's an old saying about "Irish Diplomacy," "Irish Diplomacy-The art of telling someone to go to hell, and having them look forward to the trip." It used to be very big out here in the west where we "live and let live."

And then the eagle forum and rush limbaugh showed up with the self-entitled brat pack(s) from Los Angeles and "the east" coast.

[joshcryer]

16. What sort of evisceration?

I appreciate a calmly stated, roundabout way of tearing someone down.

[Cerridwen]

18. What ever works in "realpolitick."

"Leaked" emails.

An old newspaper article.

"Evisceration" can be of the reputation, of the human body, of the political reputation, whatever. It's a metaphorical term. It can mean much, little, or nothing.

That is how the political "game" is played.

Ugly? Yep. Reality. Oh yeah.

The best way to win a war/game is to allow/encourage your enemy/opposition to underestimate you.

Works every.god.damned.time.

[strategery blunder]

8. Often I will have my disagreements with Harry Reid for being too milquetoast...

But even when I disagree with him, and the compromises he makes, unlike the present crop of Tea Party Republican Cruz Missiles, Senator Reid is interested in BONA FIDE GOVERNANCE.

And he, as have we all, have finally reached the breaking point at which compromise is no longer possible, as the Republican Cruz Missile Kamikaze Carrier has finally sailed off the edge of the world into the abyss, and there comes a point when basic governance and compromise with teh crazy become mutually exclusive.

President Obama, for all his longing for bipartisanship, has likewise finally reached the point at which he must tell the Congressional two-year-olds to go sit in the naughty corner...

Give 'em hell, Harry.

[phleshdef]

10. Harry Reid will never get the credit he deserves on a lot of good stuff.

He has been a quiet but very effective legislative fighter for a whole host of stuff that is of great interest to Democrats and progressives in particular. But that stuff seems to often go unrecognized while the negatives of Harry Reid seem to constantly be broadcast. The truth is, Harry Reid knows how to work the Senate better than anyone and that's why he is majority leader.

[freshwest]

11. +1

[merrily]

19. True, because he does his job so well.

His job has two parts. One part is getting legislation passed The other is protecting Democratic Senators. The two jobs are not always compatible. However, when his caucus does not allow him to get legislation passed, everyone blames him and he takes all the crap, never selling out any member or members of his caucus who stood in the way.

And yes, he knows how to work those convoluted rules that are basically designed not to get anything done.

Damned conservative rules!

[quakerboy]

23. Yeah. Ive probably said my share of disparaging things about him

in moments of extreme frustration. I demand a lot.

But this is impressive to me. The republicans keep shutting down government, its not a new thing, its their pattern. And having a man there who understands that and is prepared and willing to deal with their huge load of crap is worth something.

[Orsino]

26. I suspect that he has sold us out more often...

...but that probably shouldn't diminish your point. In today's Congress, it's not possible to make a deals that don't also screw us over.

He's an able politician who won't ever get all the credit (or blame) he deserves.

[sheshe2]

5. Kicked and Recommending!

[calimary]

7. That's just one of MANY things they've been wrong about.

Everything from "Saddam DOES have WMD!" to "trees cause pollution." As long as I've been keeping track - waking up during Nixon.

[UtahLib]

12. K & R

[RobertEarl]

14. Good for Harry

Nice to read some of his history on this thread.

He has put up with a lot and he never gets bad news like wearing a prostitute's diaper, or having a wide stance.

He's held together the dems in the senate very well, keeping the worst the republicans in the house under control, and works with Obama.

The country is indebted to him to a large degree. He is a real statesman.

[Iliyah]

15. K & R

Soft spoken and often misjudged as weak whereas he is not. This is a democracy where people voted their representatives into office to work for them and the country as whole. The GOP party have forgotten that and have become a party of "my way or the highway" bs. As Sullivan wrote - its time to bring the elephant down" (not quite the quote).

[JDPriestly]

17. Thanks. It's really the stock market and our 401(K)s that are the big Ponzi schemes.

[Iliyah]

20. Ya'see the stock market was unconcerned about the

shutdown and over 800,000 workers not being paid huh. The stock market is not trickling down no more and the 1%ers' profits ain't neither.

[annabanana]

25. No kidding!

The market is NO PLACE for those who can't afford to lose it.

[JDPriestly]

28. Yet working people are encouraged to "invest" their money there, pay some intermediary to

"invest" their money for them because of ERISA and the legislation the set up 401(K)s.

Social Security and work-related pensions are the real retirement funds for most seniors.

I just reviewed some of my records. The 401(K)s are close to scams if not scams. The cost of living rises every day. The value of your stocks and bonds can go up but can go down really fast and when they do you can lose a lot. It's really a Ponzi scheme.

As baby boomers retire and spend their money to live on, in part because technology will reduce the value of work to boot, the amount of money flowing into stocks and business will decline in my opinion and the value of the stock market and stocks will decline with it.

Where do I see the value in future years? In land on which you can maybe keep some chickens, a pig and garden. I'm guessing. I really don't know.

But unless we really reorganize our understanding of who gets what and why and put the brakes on the growing disparity in wealth and re-educate ourselves to believe a little less in the myth that management is higher on the pyramid than labor and that management deserves a huge slice of the profits while labor deserves very little, we will land in a big mess as a society.

Our biggest problem, in my opinion, is the disparity in wealth. That will not get better as time passes. Not in my opinion.

[ctsnowman]

32. Excellent!

Post.

[grantcart]

21. Says it all.

[alp227]

22. To be fair though, I think Bob Dole has seen the light

because of his advocacy for the Americans with Disabilities Act and later the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which was rejected thanks to the Senate's Tea Party crazies, who shamelessly voted NO right in the presence of the ailing war hero and one-time presidential candidate.



Gingrich and Armey, however are stubborn and in fact Armey founded FreedomWorks later I think.

[Tx4obama]

24. Yeah, that WAS pretty bad. I remember that day. n/t

[SunSeeker]

34. I remember. Such stunning shamelessness. nt

[lame54]

27. 0 4 3

[bluedeathray]

29. AND how the GOP doesn't give a f**k about the 99%. nt

[Historic NY]

30. Republicans and they say they're with us....

they have done nothing for people at all. Ought to send it to the baggers on Medicare & SS.

[Scurrilous]

31. K & R

[AzDar]

33. Huh. I thought for sure it would be all that leftover "powder", he "kept dry" during the Bush years.

[Rex]

35. He knows exactly what is going on.

The GOP is imploding with rage.

[Motown_Johnny]

36. I was kinda expecting a condom

Just Kidding! (kinda)

[flamingdem]

37. Harry is hot!

.. um but maybe not that hot