I am a lurker, this is my first Diary in a few years. Here goes...
Why is Harry Reid still our Majority Leader?
There have been many great diaries on here discussing everything we did to get 59 senators, and the bonus with Spector; so I will not go into that. However we are at a 'line in the sand' moment within the Democratic party. If we do not pass a comprehensive public option health care bill in T-Minus 15 months, when will we ever?
If the Republicans had a new popular President and a super majority in both houses of congress, would they even ask what we wanted...? No.
Now I am all for working together and finding a middle ground on most things, but not on health care. It is too important, and we have fought for too long, to see this fall flat once again because a few senators could not muster up the courage to vote for what is right. If Reid cannot convince these few Senators to vote, not for the bill, but just for cloture...then he does not deserve to be the Majority Leader.
The Majority Leader should be the person who represents the party, and is the force to be reckoned with for going against the goals of the party. The Democratic caucus can strip a member of all his/her seniority, and I believe this option should be used. Not for the final vote, but only if the caucusing members vote to uphold a Republican filibuster. This sort of power should be used hesitantly, and with great thought. But for things as important as a true public option in health care it needs to be used, and used now!
I have realized over the past months that one of our main problems is having a conservative Democrat from Nevada as our Leader. We have chosen someone who does not represent the Party as a whole, but who represents the right-leaning edge of our party. So, how do we go about changing our Majority Leader to someone who actually wants what the people in the Democratic Party want? If you know the process for this, please post in the comments and I will update as I find more information.
My main concern is during the 2010 elections, the main question that will be asked of the Democrats is, 'What did you do with your power?' and we better have something good to show for it. I don't think most people will switch to supporting Republicans right away, but they sure as hell wont be backing the Democrats if we waste this opportunity.
Now is the time for results, not more reasons why something cannot happen. We need leaders to propose a strong public option health care plan. We have the votes to pass it once it gets to the floor. I do not care if the Dems who are against the public option vote for the bill in the end, but we worked too hard, and gave too much money (a lot of it to Reid), to see this opportunity lost because it was filibustered with Democratic support. If Harry Reid cannot find the will-power to put all his might behind supporting a strong public option, then he does not deserve to be our Majority Leader any longer.
UPDATE:
Thanks for all the great comments!
So now lets see, who do you think would be better?
I think Fiengold wouldn't be to bad...
Also, thanks to cotterperson for the link. Check out VegasMom's diary and idea. I like it, lets see how many letters we can get to him soon!
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mr. Reid can be contacted at:
http://reid.senate.gov/...