Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a man whose political success is largely attributable to the aura of befuddled incompetence he uses to disarm his adversaries, was a failed Watergate baby.
In 1974, a slew of often sanctimonious and very liberal Democratic politicians rode the tide of understandable national disgust with Richard Nixon to Congress. Then the lieutenant governor of Nevada, Reid ran for the U.S. Senate, hoping to tie his opponent to the “imperial presidency” that had allegedly sprung up ex nihilo under Nixon.
Given Nevada’s inherent conservatism (at least back then), Reid cast himself as an incorruptible champion of limited government and political honor. The New York Times reported on Oct. 24, 1974, that Reid “would cut government spending by reducing the maze of federal agencies, a bureaucracy that controls much of Nevada life and that, according to Mr. Reid, has become a dangerous fourth branch of government.”
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Reid has made some adjustments since he lost that election. Last year, he insisted that Congress had cut the federal government to the bone and could not cut any further lest we hit such vital arteries of the body politic as the federally subsidized cowboy-poetry festival in northern Nevada.
But let’s get back to the imperial presidency for a moment. Nixon’s was indeed a good example. But, for liberals, presidencies are imperial only when Republicans are at the helm. Nixon’s error was to continue the inexorable growth of the executive branch hatched by Woodrow Wilson and set loose by Franklin Roosevelt. During the height of the Watergate hearings, liberal Democratic senator Alan Cranston observed, “Those who tried to warn us back at the beginning of the New Deal of the dangers of one-man rule that lay ahead on the path we were taking toward strong, centralized government may not have been so wrong.”
Reid is as incapable of such honest introspection as he is of cracking a smile that doesn’t make its recipients feel unsafe.
In 2007, the Democrats controlling the Senate were fed up with George W. Bush’s recess appointments. Majority Leader Reid, feigning great sadness over the sorry state of our republic, resorted to the extraordinary tactic of keeping the Senate in pro-forma session so as to prevent the imperial Bush from doing an end-run around the confirmation process. The move was celebrated by liberal commentators as a brave and necessary assertion of congressional power and was supported by then-senator Barack Obama.
Fast-forward to this week. The Senate has once again been in pro-forma session in order to keep President Obama from making recess appointments. Reid agreed to the tactic as part of negotiations with Republicans last year.
No matter how much a newsroom or a network may like a president and approve of his actions and goals, that they do not raise their voices in opposition to a trampling of the constitution is disgusting. If Obam insists on acting like a tin horn dictator, like Chavez or Stalin, how long before freedom of the press is snatched from those same dwellers of the newsroom?
The president continually violates his oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of The United States" But then, he is on record saying that it is a flawed document.
What has made America, America, is being slowly chipped away by this administration. Whatever happened to the rule of law and equal justice for all? Whatever happened to freeom and liberty?
Would it help if every American mailed a copy of the constitution to the White House? 300,000,000?
If Obama loses the election in November, will he go or will he declare martial law and pull a Hugo Chavez naming himself president for lilfe?
I am reminded of the following, from "A Man for All Seasons":
"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!"
Forget "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes". I fear Democrats pursuing power.
The worst thing about this power grab is that the Republicans are going along with it.
Why isn't at least the House back in session, holding hearings & threatening to start withholding funds? They DO have the power of the purse, according to an increasingly dead letter, the US Constitution. If the Dems didn't show up, like they did in Wisconsin, the GOPers could just play tapes of them & put them on record as against this unconstitutional power grab.
But the GOP is playing to lose, aren't they? That would also explain why they aren't attacking opponents of voter ID laws (supported by about 70% of Americans) for being in favor of voter fraud.
Stories like this give me chills. We stand behind weaklings like McConnell and Boehner while Obama and his toadies accomplish the fundamental transformation they set out to do. They are very quickly going to render this year's elections moot. Ok, let's say Obama loses to Romney. Who cares? The damage is done and will go on for generations. You think Romney's going to save us? Think again.
So while we political junkies enjoy the bloodsport for the next 6-8 months, Obama will knock down one end-run after another. And all I'll get to do about it is rant on Corner Comments. That is until Internet "fairness" regulations kick in.
Everyone just relax. Our Great Experiment has the foundation of public opinion and public will. The courts may or may not address this, and if not the public will. This is nothing new in politics ... a president exerting an energetic power to protect and serve. The president may be an imperial but he sure aint the first and certainly won't be the last. The People have given the dems a Senate majority and the people can take it away. Go to the polls and take your friends and neighbors.
Since Senator Reid and Governor Romney are both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is the real "Mormon" and who is the false "Mormon"? Are there Liberal and Conservative Mormons? Who gets the biggest hug from the Prophet when they visit Salt Lake City? Is Glenn Beck (also a Mormon) more highly favored among the Saints?
What a strange comment. Of course there are both liberal and conservative Mormons, though on average Mormons lean strongly conservative. But why should the authenticity of one's Mormonism be judged by political criteria? It's a church, not a political party.
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