Harry Reid Goes Apoplectic On Mitch McConnell

Leader Losing It
NRO
There was a remarkable exchange on the floor of the Senate between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It offers pretty stunning evidence of how personally petty Reid is, as well as his penchant for defining “partisanship” as anything that keeps him from getting his way.
The particulars here aren’t terribly important, but what happened was this: The Senate was voting on a Medicare bill bloated with new spending. The bill was also an attempt to prevent cuts in payment rates to doctors who treat seniors on Medicare, and Democrats wanted to pay for that by taking the funds from Medicare Advantage, a private fee-for-service plan. The president would likely have vetoed the bill in its current form and Senate Republicans opposed the gutting of Medicare Advantage, so Senate Republicans blocked the bill. The trouble is that if the Senate doesn’t resolve the issue very soon, doctors will stop receiving Medicare funds. So Republicans proposed a 30-day extension to allow more time to hammer out a compromise. Democrats blocked the proposed extension. The impasse here caused Reid to go apoplectic on Mitch McConnell.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “I have said we are all here by virtue of being elected by our respective States. I had out here earlier today our Velcro chart, 79 filibusters. Is it any wonder that the House seats that came up during the off year — Hastert’s went Republican, a Republican district that went Democratic; a seat in Louisiana that was a longtime Republican seat went Democratic. Is it any wonder that the State of Mississippi sent us a Democratic House Member? It is no wonder because they see what is going on over here. . . . Mr. President, I am sure it was a Freudian slip — 59 Democrats voted for this. But next year at this time, there will be 59 Democrats at least.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.6233, 06/26/08)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Here we are a few days before the doctors receive this unconscionable cut, and the majority is saying it is more important to play politics with this issue, to brag about the fact there are 59 Democrats who voted to go forward, to talk, of all things, during the Medicare debate about who won special elections for the House of Representatives in Illinois, Mississippi, or Louisiana. What in the world does that have to do with the subject matter?
The subject matter before us is not playing political games. . . . And the reality is that the refusal of the majority to approach this issue on a bipartisan basis, as has been typically done in the past, will lead to a Presidential veto, a reduction in the reimbursement rates for doctors, an expiration at the end of the week. There is a way forward to get back together like we have typically done on this, and that is to approve a 30-day extension.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “A veto by the President? Gee whiz, who would be afraid of him? He has a 29-percent approval rating. How in the world could anybody be afraid of him vetoing a bill? I cannot imagine why anyone would care about that. . . . I say to my friend and I say I don’t know how many people are up here for reelection, but I am watching a few of them pretty closely, I say to all these people who are up for reelection: If you think you can go home and say, I voted no because this weak President, the weakest political standing since they have done polling, I voted because I was afraid to override his veto — come on.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ridicules the idea of a veto of a Medicare payment bill from President Bush and then threatens Republicans who won’t vote with him. Here is a YouTube video of part of the exchange ……

As for his sniffing about being afraid of Bush’s low 29-percent approval rating, Reid would do well to remember that Congress’s approval rating is currently 18.5 percent. Reid’s personal approval rating back in Nevada is 43 percent and has been as low as 32 percent, late last year.

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Wild Thing’s comment…………
Reid is a power hungry traitor. McConnell is trying to get him on track, and Reid continues to play politics even after he’d been called out — injecting irrelevant comments about the president’s approval rating and other obvious jabs that have nothing to do with the matter at hand. Little weasel.
I just checked on http://www.usaelectionpolls.com and Congress has a 10 percent favorable approval rating.