outraged again at Liberal Street Fighter
Here’s a prediction: the Democrats will not pick up enough seats to take back the Senate, and probably won’t take back the House, either. Of course, the fundraising emails you get from the party or Senator Kerry’s online unit or whatever list you are on will promise otherwise. They’re going to take the Congress back from the Republicans and their “culture of corruption”.
Only problems with this scenario are:
- The Republicans fight dirty, and they fight to win.
- The Democrats ONLY fight when their personal perogatives as legislators are threatened.
This is going to be a long, ugly and dirty political fight this summer, but only one side is fighting. Already, we are seeing the early stages of a Republican campaign to take the knees out from under the Democrats on their whole “culture of corruption” meme. No, this isn’t just the raid on Representative Jefferson. Nope, once again that old hack Senator Reid has led with his chin.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) accepted free ringside tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission to three professional boxing matches while that state agency was trying to influence him on federal regulation of boxing.
Reid took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 as he was pressing legislation to increase government oversight of the sport, including the creation of a federal boxing commission that Nevada’s agency feared might usurp its authority.
He defended the gifts, saying that they would never influence his position on the bill and he was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry. “Anyone from Nevada would say I’m glad he is there taking care of the state’s number one businesses,” he said. “I love the fights anyways, so it wasn’t like being punished,” added the senator, a former boxer and boxing judge.
What a mealy-mouthed punk he is. Let’s see. This was BOXING, which people place WAGERS on, in LAS VEGAS. What other things in life just SCREAM “corrupt” and “fixed”?!?! It doen’t matter if he didn’t change his votes (not saying he didn’t, frankly don’t care … he’s a hack, a fraud and doesn’t represent my values). If you ask your proverbial man-on-the-street which sounds sleazier, golf trips in Scotland or boxing matches in Vegas, and he’s going to laugh. “Vegas, of course”.
Some other Senators went with Reid to watch the bouts:
Two senators who joined Reid for fights with the complimentary tickets took markedly differently steps.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) insisted on paying $1,400 for the tickets he shared with Reid for a 2004 championship fight. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) accepted free tickets to another fight with Reid but already had recused himself from Reid’s federal boxing legislation because his father was an executive for a Las Vegas hotel that hosts fights.
Man, this just SMELLS Of a setup. CNN even had a grainy picture of Senators Reid & McCain on the tube this morning, with a highlighting circle helpfully picking Senator Reid’s face out of the crowd.
What does the “leader” of the Democrats in the Senate have to say for himself?
“I’m not Goodie Two Shoes. I just feel these events are nothing I did wrong,” Reid said.[…]
Senate ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance that any official meetings or actions they took were in any way connected with political donations.
Reid defended his actions, stating he would never change his position because of donations, free tickets or a request from a former staffer turned lobbyist.
“People who deal with me and have over the years know that I am an advocate for what I believe in. I always try to do it fair, never take advantage of people on purpose,” he said.
Asked if he would have done anything differently, the Senate Democratic leader said his only concern was “the willingness of the press . . . to take these instances and try to make a big deal out of them.”
Whine away old man, like you always do. For someone who was supposedly so tough, you sure lead with your chin. You keep your arms down at your side, flat-footed … offering no sign that you studied your opponent before you stepped into the ring. Your corner men plainly don’t know what the hell they’re doing, yet you’re going to whimper that the press is being unfair?
Wake the fuck up.
How much longer does this country have to be held under the thumbs of the leg-breaking, fight-fixing Republicans and the Dempublicans who help them? I mean, “culture of corruption”?!!?!? How damned effete. CALL THEM CROOKS. Jesus, show just SOME sign that you people give a damn about the damage being done. You so-called “leaders” of the used-to-be party of the people just look like washed up old boxers who eat the canvas on rigged fights, while the bookies on K Street collect bigtime on the action.
No more stories of the glorious past, of your time cleaning up the Boxing Commission Senator Reid. Anybody who thinks Vegas was “cleaned up” is a rube anyway. It just became more civilized about what it does. Just like the scams run by the Bush Family and the sharks on K Street. You Dempublicans aren’t even GOOD at being corrupt. You get caught in this penny-ante crap, with pictures of you taking bribes or sitting ringside … it’s pathetic. You’re like the marks that mobsters use to front their businesses: if the heat gets too hot, overboard you go, crying and whining about how those OTHER guys are the REAL criminals, you were just trying to get what you had coming to you.
Pathetic, really, and it’s not even summer yet. By the time the Republicans are done with you, and after you continue to fail to really strike back for months on end, the American voter will just throw their hands up and stay home. Why bother voting for an incompetent bunch of wannabe crooks over the mobsters? At least the mobsters take some pride in their work.
Take back Congress?!?! Please.
I don’t expect anything better from Reid. His seat’s hardly threatened. The Republicans know that the best thing they can do is to keep his ineffectual, corrupt ass in power. As long as they defend his perks, he’ll roll over for them on cue, and force the rest of the Democrats to go along.
Expect him to sacrifice a few Democratic seats and winnable races in blue states to Republicans this election to “keep the powder dry” and “build up political capital” – IE, prevent the Republicans from running a strong challenger in his state. Casey was the first of these. Any money on the next?
the sad thing is that his continual capitualations won’t protect him. They’ll do to him what they did to Daschle … it’s only a matter of time.
Maybe not. Reid’s even more ineffective than Daschle, and it’s not like they need the seat or have to worry about a blog-backed Democratic primary challenge. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was allowed to keep the seat until retirement, on the condition that he quashed any attempt to keep the Republicans from taking it back after he retired.
You didn’t mention two things. Oddly, they are the same two things that the AP article didn’t mention.
So?
There were good explanations for everything they attacked Kerry on, and Dukakis, and Gore, and and and and …
That’s not the point. Reid is just the latest in a long line of feckless hacks who leave themselves open stupidly while being utterly unable to effectively defend themselves, let alone go on the attack.
Reid isn’t a fighting anything. He’s a washed up old has-been and a terrible politician, especially for a leadership role.
I’m just saying that the AP piece comes across as a smear piece because it implies, if not outright alleges, that this is a quid pro quo situation when it is clearly not.
It is quid pro no quo.
This is nothing more than a RWNM-manufactured scandal. If you’re going to be pissed off at someone (and I know you are 🙂 I’d aim my anger at the so-called journalists writing hit pieces like this.
THEY are the reason the Democrats won’t win, if indeed they don’t. Not because Reid went to some stupid boxing matches.
geez, quit giving the Dems such a pass. This stuff happens over and over again because they don’t fight back. They don’t fight for ANYTHING other than themselves. That is the point, not that there wasn’t a quid pro quo. Anybody w/ half a brain, knowing how the Republicans work the media, would have known this was a bad idea.
Whatever. Hold on to your hope. It won’t do any good. I’m done being mad at the media. Being mad at the media is like being mad at the weather. What infuriates me is that Reid and the rest of the Vichy Dems STILL fight according to rules that have long since been thrown out the window.
So your argument is that Democratic politicians should not do anything that could be portrayed in a negative light by the right wing media?
What exactly are you pissed about? The fact that he took the tickets, or his response? Or both?
my point is that they should realize that they are in a war with guys who don’t play by some idea of gentleman’s rules. I want them to actually put some thought into what they say and do. I want them to fight. I want them to quit aping the Rethugs. As for Reid, I’m mad at him being so stupid and obvious about the tickets. I’m mad he accepted. I’m mad that he sounded like a petulant child when asked about them. I’m mad that he’s such a shameless hack and such a terrible political tactician.
Right, Madman.
If any of us were in a messy divorce, battling a spouse we know all too well to be capable of twisting everything we do to his/her advantage, we’d USE OUR HEADS, and not provide the enemy with ammunition. No innocent sleep-overs, no loud parties, no public tantrums, NOTHING that could be used against us.
Why aren’t our Democratic strategists as smart as divorce lawyers ?
What I want them to realize, in addition, is that a LOT of the current anti-R sentiment out there does NOT translate into pro-D. Yeah, they’re the leading alternative, maybe the only one yet… but the D’s are NOT getting positive opinion to match the R’s decline.
There is no “benefit of the doubt because we like how they think” in play here.
Reid needs to apologize IMMEDIATELY, Yesterday if not sooner, he needs to pay out the cost of the tickets (if not to the boxing commission then to a well-established charity) and he needs to give serious thought to calling a leadership election wherein the caucus can, if they choose, replace him.
Yeah, this is a bit extreme, but right now “business as usual” and legalisms just won’t get the “anti-R” vote onside. Clinton was a good enough politician, and a strong enough leader, to be able to out-lawyer the R’s and pull it off; Reid isn’t.
“They’re crooks, we’re honest,” will get them traction ONLY IF THEY’RE OPENLY AND TRANSPARENTLY HONEST. “Not technically illegal no matter HOW bad it looks” will NOT fly, and they very definitely need to figure that out quickly. They can pick up the anti-R vote ONLY so long as they themselves are visibly better in the areas where the R’s are losing — competence and corruption.
So far all they seem to be able to demonstrate is that they’re Republican-lite here, too.
A-fucking-men. Reid doesn’t understand this. The Democrats are going to lose seats because of it.
The issue here is that it was an obvious setup, and Reid fell for it, hook, line, and sinker:
McCain and Ensign get labelled as “honest men” because of their actions. Reid, even though what he did was legal, gets labelled as a “slimy politician”.
It’s not a matter of not doing anything that can be cast in a negative light. It’s a matter of not doing things that are immensely stupid and look corrupt. Actual corruption or purity is irrelevant. The appearance of corruption or purity is vital. The Republican electoral strategy relies on painting the Democrats as “just as bad”. It’s what they did with Gore, it’s what they did with Kerry (though it’s not like Kerry didn’t hand them ammo, a shotgun, and paint a target on his head), it’s what they’re going to do in the upcoming midterms.
But hey, Reid’s convinced he can win just by pointing at the Republicans and screaming “They’re bad bad doo-doo heads!” Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the Republicans will mount a serious challenge for his seat. Maybe, like Gore, he’ll think differently after he’s gotten the boot.
I doubt it, though. He’s a Good Old Boy, who’s utterly perplexed by the fact that the Bad Old Boys are now running things, and aren’t playing by his rules anymore.
All the dems seem to want people to believe is to trust them because they seem to be not as bad as the repub crooks.
Start playing hardball, instead of holding hands and stop whining.
It is put up or shut up time!