The Chicago Sun-Times has an interesting report on Harry Reid's conversations with Rod Blagojevich before Balgojevich got indicted. It seems that Harry Reid has a problem.
We are used to Harry Reid being a spineless wonder. We are used to him caving in to the Bush administration's demands. We are used to him passing shoddy legislation, like the bailout bill--which lacked transparency and created a new class of welfare kings. These welfare kings take millions in government money and use it to buy luxurious estates with servant's quarters.
While billions in government money goes to support the extravagant lifestyles of the rich, almost 1/5 of Americans are without health insurance. They skip filling their prescriptions, live in misery, and try to forget it. In two years, Harry Reid has failed to have a debate on health care. He is apparently scared that a debate on health care would cause his rich friends to disinvite him from the Washington cocktail party circuit.
It gets worse. Harry Reid has failed to fight the Bush administration's outright politicization of the Food and Drug Administration. There are promising new drugs. Sometimes, studies reveal promising new drugs; some patients respond well to these drugs. But the drug companies do not want to supply an off-label usage because it is not covered by insurance, and costs them money. The Bush administration, which wants to pay back the big drug industry for years of political support, just endorsed the process of drug companies taking away effective medications from study participants.
Again, Harry Reid has done nothing about this. There hasn't been a single minute of debate on the Senate floor about such outrages over the past two years. Harry Reid is afraid--he is afraid that the Republicans will give him a headache by trying to gum up the works. He is afraid of losing the Democratic Majority because of an inability to pass legislation. He is afraid of a repeat of the 2004 election.
But Harry Reid doesn't seem to realize that things have changed since then. He doesn't seem to realize that Democrats now control the House (and soon the White House) as well. He never realized that Bush's popularity tanked outside the beltway around Labor Day of 2005. Harry Reid never realized that George W. Bush is regarded as a massive failure of a President by 70 percent of the American people. So Harry Reid cowers--afraid of the never-ending threat of a Republican fillibuster. In some ways, Harry Reid has allowed the Republicans to use the "nuclear option" without forcing them to be honest about their obstructionism.
It can't get worse, can it? Well, actually it can. According to the Sun Times, Harry Reid found his spine early last month. The Sun-Times reports that Harry Reid called Rod Balgojevich shortly before he was indicted to pressure the Governor to not appoint an African American:
"Sources say the Senate majority leader pushed against Jackson and Davis — both democratic congressmen from Illinois — and against Jones — the Illinois Senate president who is the political godfather of President-elect Barack Obama — because he did not believe the three men were electable. He feared losing the seat to a Republican in a future election."
Harry Reid won't fight big insurance companies, big drug companies, traitor Joe's in his own party, or the Bush administration. But Harry Reid will fight members of his own party solely because of the color of their skin. Now that Blagojevich has appointed Roland Burris, Harry Reid is apparently trying to bar the doors of the Senate.
Here's a message for Senator Reid: if you want to lose the Illinois Senate seat--and dozens of other Senate seats--then go ahead and have the Senate bar its only African American member from being seated, after you pushed against the appointment of an African American due to "electability" concerns.
Maybe Senator Reid hasn't got the memo, but a black guy just got elected President of the United States. He carried: Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and oh by the way Harry, Illinois too. If Harry Reid is still stuck in the distant past, then perhaps it's time for us to get a Majority Leader who will focus on the future.
Update: the portion that deals with the drug companies is poorly written. What the drug companies are fighting for--and what the Bush FDA has allowed--is not allowing study participants to continue taking medications that are unapproved by the FDA while waiting for approval. They would have to provide the drugs for free in this case, which costs them money. Bush's FDA has argued that drug companies have no ethical obligations to study participants after the conclusion of a study