Thread: If This Holds True, Harry Reid Is About To Become A WHOLE Lot Less Powerful

If This Holds True, Harry Reid Is About To Become A WHOLE Lot Less Powerful

He may have gravely miscalculated his position...

Floyd Brown — August 15, 2014


The competition for the U.S. Senate this fall is getting nasty… and when the smoke clears, I predict that Harry Reid will be retired as Senate Majority Leader.

Between then and now, though, it’s going to be a rough ride.

The Republicans need six seats to flip the Senate from Democrat to Republican, and the latest polling shows nine races are too close to call.
What’s more, in some states, we don’t even know who the eventual candidates might be.
With that in mind, here’s an update from the frontlines of this all-important election season.

The Left Has Miscalculated
The Democrats believe they have a chance to pick up at least two seats (in Georgia and Kentucky) that currently belong to Republican senators. However, I’m skeptical that either Georgia or Kentucky is actually in play.
For starters, Kentucky is the home state of the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell. McConnell is being challenged by Alison Lundergan Grimes, the 35-year-old Secretary of State in Kentucky; and she’s claiming that the 72-year-old McConnell has been around too long to be effective.
In the end, though, Grimes will come up empty in her pursuit of McConnell, who has a ton of clout because of his tenure.
Meanwhile, in Georgia, the Republican incumbent decided to retire, leaving Democrat Michelle Nunn facing off against businessman David Perdue. Democrats fondly remember the service of Nunn’s father, Sam, and hope that the storied name will carry his daughter to victory.
However, that’s pretty unlikely. I predict that Nunn won’t be able to overcome her connections to a more famous politician, Barack Obama; and that will destroy her hopes of winning the election.

Obama Sinks His Own Party
Aside from those states, the races that interest me the most are in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, and North Carolina… all of which currently have Democrat senators.
Since Republicans already lead in three states where Democrats are retiring – Montana, South Dakota, and West Virginia – they only need to win in three of the seven remaining blue states.
Alaska is still in the midst of a heated Republican Party primary. Tea Party candidate Joe Miller is facing off with two centrist Republicans, Dan Sullivan and Mead Treadwell. Treadwell is Lieutenant Governor, while Sullivan is a former Attorney General and George W. Bush political appointee who is benefiting from Karl Rove’s sponsorship.
The eventual nominee will have a good shot at victory against incumbent Mark Begich. His election six years ago was a surprise, and he won mostly because the Department of Justice indicted the Republican he was campaigning against. On top of that, Obama and Obamacare remain very unpopular in Alaska.
In fact, a similar story is playing out across the country. Barack Obama is turning out to be a liability, and his unpopularity is pulling down the entire Democratic ticket.
Not surprisingly, the Democratic establishment is beginning to rebel against the White House. Criticism of Obama is increasing. Many U.S. senators up for re-election are letting it be known that Obama’s constant vacationing (even as the world burns) is hurting their chances.
In the end, though, I feel that a Republican takeover is almost baked in the cake.
The GOP should beat Mark Begich in Alaska, Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, and Kay Hagan in North Carolina – giving them enough seats to score the majority.

This commentary originally appeared at WallStreetDaily.com and is reprinted here with permission.

Photo credit: Joe Newman (Flickr) The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by WesternJournalism.com.


http://www.westernjournalism.com/rep...rry-reid-curb/

http://www.alipac.us/f9/cocky-coward...1/#post1431223

If What This Writer Says Is True, Harry Reid May Be About To Destroy Obama

Channeling a comparison to central characters in the classic mafia film "The Godfather..."

B. Christopher Agee — August 20, 2014



A recent Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial revealed one man’s opinion that, with more than two years left in his second term, Barack Obama’s presidency is effectively over. The major factor he cited in arriving at this conclusion is a noticeable cooling in Obama’s relationship with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a man who has been a reliable defender over the past six years.
Citing a New York Times article, columnist John L. Smith seized on one particular passage describing a tense conversation involving Obama, Reid, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The topic of discussion, the article explained, was a list of nominees Obama hopes will become ambassadors. Despite the fact that Reid was willing and ready to plead the president’s case in the face of fierce Republican opposition, Smith noted that Obama himself seemed to tune out of the entire process.

“They were Obama’s nominees,” he wrote; “but from the sound of things, he was unwilling to joust for them.”

According to the Time’s account, Obama instructed Reid and McConnell to “work it out” amongst themselves.
The perceived slight reportedly caused Reid to become angry and complain about Obama’s attitude to others in the U.S. Senate. In Smith’s estimation, the longtime senator is precisely the supporter an increasingly unpopular Obama needs at this point in his presidency.
“We’re not talking about the hurt feelings of just any Democrat,” he wrote. “We’re talking about brawling Harry Reid of Nevada, the man without whom Obama’s presidency would be so small scientists couldn’t identify it with an electron microscope.”
Much has been written – by leftists and conservatives alike – about Obama’s apparent disengagement, especially since the beginning of his second term. Lewis, however, notes that the troubling progression has now apparently cost him one of the last remaining relationships capable of maintaining his relevance.
The Nevada Democrat, he asserted, was integral in advancing many of Obama’s policies – including the healthcare reform debacle known as ObamaCare.

“Reid has not only carried Obama’s water,” Lewis concluded, “he’s drawn it from dry wells and conjured it from cloudless skies.”

Lewis described the relationship that once existed between Obama and Reid as mob boss Vito Corleone and his trusted enforcer Luca Brasi.
“If Reid is finished fighting for Obama,” he affirmed, “then Obama is as good as finished.”


Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/nev...3yzkoM4dvZs.99

A Struggle Within? Harry Reid, Democrats Increasingly Frustrated With Aloof Obama

August 21, 2014 by Ben Bullard

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA

As his second term matures (or festers, if you prefer), President Obama is leading the executive branch into closer alliances with lobbying interests and partisan donors. But he’s doing so at the expense of traditional political alliances, leaving his would-be Democratic allies in the legislative branch to fend for themselves when it comes to crafting policy and forging both intra-party and bipartisan political alliances.
Reportedly, Democratic Congressional leaders — especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — aren’t happy about it.
From an August 18 story in The New York Times:

The meeting in the Oval Office in late June was called to give President Obama and the four top members of Congress a chance to discuss the unraveling situation in Iraq.
But Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, wanted to press another point.
With Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, sitting a few feet away, Mr. Reid complained that Senate Republicans were spitefully blocking the confirmation of dozens of Mr. Obama’s nominees to serve as ambassadors. He expected that the president would back him up and urge Mr. McConnell to relent.
Mr. Obama quickly dismissed the matter.
“You and Mitch work it out,” Mr. Obama said coolly, cutting off any discussion.
Mr. Reid seethed quietly for the rest of the meeting, according to four separate accounts provided by people who spoke with him about it. After his return to the Capitol that afternoon, Mr. Reid told other senators and his staff members that he was astonished by how disengaged the president seemed. After all, these were Mr. Obama’s own ambassadors who were being blocked by Mr. McConnell, and Secretary of State John Kerry had been arguing for months that getting them installed was an urgent necessity for the administration.
But the impression the president left with Mr. Reid was clear: Capitol Hill is not my problem.
…In interviews, nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers and senior congressional aides suggested that Mr. Obama’s approach has left him with few loyalists to effectively manage the issues erupting abroad and at home and could imperil his efforts to leave a legacy in his final stretch in office.

This anecdote aligns with the remarks of House Democrats, who told The Hill last week that Obama is shunning them — and they don’t know why.
“It’s hard for us to fathom; I mean, is it just lack of full staffing and resources? [Is it] professional commitment? Is it a disdain for the legislative branch? I mean, what is it? People like me want to be allies — I mean, I am an ally. So work with us, reach out to us; you know, we’re not the enemy,” said Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).
“Not being consulted ahead of time — that just makes people crazy. Let us know ahead of time. Call us in when you’re developing something so we can give you our ground-level reality check about how this is going to work,” said Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
There’s another side to the problem, though — one that betrays a more calculating aspect to Obama’s shunning of Democratic Congressional leadership.
Obama surely knows he’s toxic to many Democratic incumbents seeking to retain their seats in the House and Senate this November. He’s even demonstrated a willingness to show face on behalf embattled Democrats — even when they dodge their own fundraisers to avoid being seen and photographed with the divisive president. He knows, in many Congressional races, he can only get so close to candidates in their own districts without poisoning their efforts.
If Obama’s a political albatross hanging around his own party’s neck, it makes little sense for him to keep fighting counterproductive battles in legislative districts where Democrats want nothing to do with him. But he can (and does) fundraise on his own, and he can (and does) forge alliances with lobbying interests ostensibly outside of government — alliances that ultimately could prove more effective (for Democrats) than any relationships he might be able to mend in the 113^th Congress.

http://personalliberty.com/struggle-...d-aloof-obama/

Will Harry Reid Run?

August 28, 2014 8:59 am

• Politics

Whispers: Senate majority leader washed-up, finished

(Politico) – Forty years ago, a relatively unknown youngster had fought his way to a slight advantage over former Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt.
But the challenger felt he needed a coup de grâce, so he raised questions about Laxalt’s family finances, wondering about the provenance and propriety of certain funds.

Laxalt responded by putting his sister out front to explain how she had lived her life with a vow of poverty: She was a nun. The outrage was palpable; Laxalt was elected by 624 votes.

The loser in that 1974 race was 34-year-old Harry Reid, whose putative killer instinct had killed the messenger (i.e. himself), theoretically ending his political career. But four decades later, buoyed by a series of fortunate events and a determination bordering on indomitability, Reid appears to be poised to embark on a bid for a sixth term.

Or is he?

Questions about the 74-year-old’s health, his recent move to be closer to his children and grandchildren and uncertainty about the Democratic majority in the Senate lead some knowledgeable insiders to speculate that Reid will retire rather than face a challenge in 2016.

“I don’t think he will run again,” said one insider with decades of experience in Nevada and D.C. politics. “He’s not well. His wife isn’t well. He has grandchildren. And he may not be in the majority after November.”

That, however, is a minority view, albeit an understandable one based on observing Reid. Those close to the majority leader say his health actually is quite robust, that he is intent on mounting another campaign and that he relishes any challenge, even from popular Gov. Brian Sandoval. As for the reports that the Koch brothers are plotting to bring him down, his staff has a ready answer: Bring it on.

Although some Reidites are willing to concede he has slowed down, with the signature shuffle now even more pronounced and his notoriously poor balance palpable. But they say his mind remains sharp as ever, even though several sources told me they have recently witnessed him lose his place in conversations or meander into tangents before regaining his focus.

And then there are the gaffes. So many, so much more frequent, it seems. Just last week, Reid was forced to apologize for what for him was a minor slip, more a case of him trying to be too cute by saying he had trouble “keeping my Wongs straight” at an Asian Chamber of Commerce event. This was not on par with describing the first African-American president as “light-skinned….with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one,” which one Nevada Democrat recently called “as bad as it gets.”

But it was cringe-worthy enough, and another sign that whatever filter Reid once had is gone, perhaps because of older age, perhaps because he has decided not to run or simply because he is … Harry Reid.

The majority leader’s staff allows no room for equivocation.

“Senator Reid is running for reelection regardless of who his opponent is,” said Reid’s spokeswoman Kristen Orthman. “We fully anticipate the Koch brothers will spend millions of dollars trying to buy the race in Nevada. We also fully anticipate they will be unsuccessful as they have been in previous cycles when Nevadans rejected their anti-middle class, anti-Social Security agenda.”

But what else can she say?

In this case, though, the spin may be the truth. After talking to some keen, longtime observers of Nevada politics, I remain unshaken in my belief that Reid intends to run, absent any serious health concerns for himself or his wife. But with his intense war against the Koch brothers, whom he seems to mention every time he gets on the Senate floor, and his approval numbers as bad or worse than they were before he ran last time, Reid has raised questions about what his endgame is – or if this is the end.

Reid declined to be interviewed for this piece. Some of those who agreed to talk about Reid’s health, gaffes and/or machinations understandably did not want to be identified. But they are all reliable insiders who are tuned into Nevada and D.C. politics, and some are far from Reid sycophants.
***
When he spoke last week in Vegas to the Asian Chamber, Reid, a voracious reader, told the crowd about a book he had just finished. “I would recommend it to everyone,” Reid said. “It’s called Dowager Empress Cixi. Read that. It’s a best seller. It’s a great book. Everyone should read that. … This remarkable woman did so much for China.”

Reid has mentioned the book (he got the title slightly wrong) to others, too, but not simply because he loves history. “In some four decades of absolute power, her political killings, whether just or unjust … were no more than a few dozen, many in response to plots to kill her,” Jung Chang writes of the empress.

A leader who is ruthless in pursuit of and holding onto power, who is willing to dispose of political enemies and who revels in changing history. For four decades!

The parallels are clear. That explains why Harry Reid loves the book, and to many of those who know him, helps explain why he will never willingly give up power.

“Harry Reid will do virtually anything that is not contrary to the law to achieve his objective,” said one Democratic insider who knows Reid well.

“He is strategic in his thinking and very focused.”

http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...h#.U_9RdPldWSp

- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/will-harry-r....6GA6Wjh7.dpuf


Word as it he and his sons are getting the the MaryJane business, no verification on that quite yet...

Watch Harry Reid Say Ridiculous Things for FIVE Minutes

By Onan Coca / 29 August 2014 /


The wonderful Americans over at Roll Call have produced what may be the greatest video ever made. Watch five glorious minutes of Harry Reid’s greatest hits.
As Heard on the Hill's look back at 2014 rolls on, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid organizes his calendar, greases pigs and pays tribute to his favorite Americans, the Koch brothers.



Published on Aug 21, 2014
As Heard on the Hill's look back at 2014 rolls on, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid organizes his calendar, greases pigs and pays tribute to his favorite Americans, the Koch brothers.


Read more at http://eaglerising.com/8265/watch-ha...Hq4pO62I0IU.99

Ted Cruz Just Made a Bold Prediction About Harry Reid that Will Make Conservatives Across America Stand up and Cheer




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August 30, 2014 10:14 pm

• Election

(TPNN) – Ted Cruz sat down Tea Party News Director Scottie Nell Hughes, for an exclusive and wide-ranging interview at the 2014 Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit, taking place in Dallas this weekend.

Scottie offered a tactical attempt to get Senator Cruz to budge on announcing whether he was going to make a run for the presidency in 2016, pressing Cruz, “Is there a timeline that you will be thinking of making an announcement? Let’s just say someone was thinking of running for 2016, when would be that time that you would think of that.”

“I am happy to make an announcement right now–which is 66 days from now, I am convinced we’re going to retake the U.S. Senate and we’re going to retire Harry Reid’s as majority leader,” Cruz confidently predicted about the upcoming 2014 midterm elections, a proclamation that will make principled conservatives give a standing ovation to hear.

“Next year, we’re going to see the presidential race get moving,” Cruz elaborated. “Let me tell you the test I intend to apply as a voter, it’s the test I intend to apply as a voter who will be voting in the Republican primary in 2016. Republicans should nominate whoever is standing up and leading,” Cruz advised.

Cruz referred to the upcoming election as “the most important election of our lifetime,” then expanded on the urgency of America’s dire direction under Democrat President Barack Obama:

“Our country is in crisis. It’s now or never. Whoever is standing up and leading, making the case that the Obama agenda isn’t working–economically it’s a disaster, our constitutional rights are under assault–abroad, America’s receded from leadership in the world.”

It would be easy to make the case that Cruz is slightly hinting at a 2016 presidential run, as Cruz has certainly provided bold leadership in fighting against Obamacare, amnesty, and various other acts of Obama’s lawlessness, and has been viciously attacked for it by the establishment leadership in both political parties.

Cruz’s message to other prospective GOP presidential candidates, which so far is looking like it may be another crowded field, is “stand up and lead.”

Cruz encouraged voters to look at candidates who’ve “stood up and engaged” on the important issues facing the nation over the last two or three years.

“We’ve seen two elections in a row where Republicans didn’t take it to the Democrats, didn’t draw a clear contrast. If we hide in the corner, Hillary Clinton will run right over us,” Cruz predicted. “Margaret Thatcher famously said, ‘First you win the argument, then you win the vote,’” Cruz explained.
Cruz told Scottie that what the GOP needs for the next presidential candidate is someone who paints a positive, bold, optimistic vision, that we can get back to the principles that built this country.”

It sounds like Senator Ted Cruz may have just been describing President Ted Cruz.

Scottie then asked the senator from Texas to weigh in on the somewhat of an ongoing feud between the establishment RINO wing of the GOP, versus the grassroots, pro-Constitution, pro-freedom Tea Party and libertarian wing of the Republican Party. Specifically, Scottie asked Cruz to comment on Paul Ryan’s new book in which he bashed the Tea Party and the Cruz push to stop the funding of Obamacare by using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage.

“I like Paul Ryan. He’s a good man,” Cruz responded. “I will say that I don’t think it’s beneficial when Republican leadership throws rocks at conservatives, at conservative activists across this country,” Cruz answered about Ryan’s attacks against the Tea Party.
Cruz then blasted the leftstream Democrat media complex, who he referred to as “useful idiots,” for perpetuating the lie that Republicans shut down the government:

“One of the greatest lies that the mainstream media repeats ad nauseam, is the lie that Republicans shut down the government. It’s simply not true. The House of Representatives, House Republicans voted over-and-over-and-over again to fully fund the federal government, but to defund Obamacare. The reason the government shutdown is because President Obama and Harry Reid wanted to shut down the government, and they said very publicly that they thought it benefited them politically to shut down the government, in part, because they could count on the useful idiots in the media, and sadly on a fair number of Senate Republicans, to go on television and blame the shutdown on Republicans.”

Cruz told Scottie that when Republicans voted to fully fund the government except for Obamacare, and Democrats refused to negotiate, it was the Democrats who chose to close down the full government, not the Republicans.

Cruz said the fight to defund Obamacare, was a fight against “the most disastrous legislation in modern times.”

“How many Americans wished Republicans had stood together and Democrats hadn’t shut down the government, but had been willing to work to avoid the disaster, the train wreck that is Obamacare?” Cruz asked rhetorically.

WATCH FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:



http://www.tpnn.com/2014/08/30/exclu....sgr4MciT.dpuf

- See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/ted-cruz-jus....sgr4MciT.dpuf


As much as I like Ted Cruz, he can't run for the Presidency here we go again!!!!!

This is not a Democrat vs Republican issue, but a constitutional issue that applies to candidates of all parties. The reason Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States has nothing to do with the argument over where he was born. However, by his own admission, Obama's father was never a US Citizen, which in and of itself makes Barack Obama ineligible to be President of The United States. Likewise, Senator Ted Cruz (R) is ineligible because he was born in Canada, not in the United States, and his father was not a US Citizen at the time of Senator Cruz's birth. Neither Marco Rubio (R) or Bobby Jindal (R) are eligible to be President because one or both of their parents were not US Citizens at the time of Senator Rubio's nor Governor Jindal's births.

http://www.alipac.us/f19/natural-born-citizen-%96-why-should-matter-both-republicans-democrats-307665/#post1426186

The GOP should beat Mark Begich in Alaska, Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu in Louisiana, and Kay Hagan in North Carolina – giving them enough seats to score the majority.

Unfortunately, not likely!

I so wish the North Carolina voters had given us a great Republican choice for Senate so we could in good conscience vote for this person which would then help kick Harry Reid OUT! He is a menace! But our choice is an unethical manipulator and backed by Karl Rove money.