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StumbleReid fires back on Obama replacement appointees
Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009 | 11:10 a.m.
Sen. Harry Reid
WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shot back today at critics who have suggested racial politics is at play in his reported preference for white elected officials rather than African-Americans as potential appointees to replace Barack Obama in the Senate.
Reid, in an extensive interview on “Meet the Press,” also suggested that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is making up the details of a phone conversation the two had in which Reid offered his preferences in the days before the governor’s arrest for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s seat.
Reid spoke to Blagojevich, as he did other governors with open Senate seats, about possible appointees, in a call the majority leader’s office has said was routine.
Reports said Reid expressed support for veteran Tammy Duckworth and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but rejected three African-American lawmakers he believed may not be able to win the seat in a subsequent election.
Republicans and supporters of Roland Burris, the former Illinois official Blagojevich appointed to the seat, have begun to suggest race is at play – a notion Reid quickly refuted as a distraction.
“To suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that’s involved his office in Illinois,” Reid said, detailing his own long history of supporting black officials in Nevada and Washington.
Reid and his fellow Democratic senators had called on Blagojevich to resign and refrain from making an appointment, believing even a worthy candidate would be tainted by the scandal.
Reid spoke positively today about Burris as well as other potential black lawmakers who had been mentioned as possible appointees.
Reid further insisted he didn’t tell Blagojevich who to appoint. The call was reportedly taped as part of the ongoing federal investigation into the governor.
Despite a debate among scholars over the Senate’s power to block the appointment Reid insisted the Constitution gives the chamber final say in accepting members. Democrats have vowed to block Burris from being sworn in on Tuesday, but Reid hinted today “there’s always room to negotiate.”
Republicans continue to suggest a special election to fill the seat would be the best course of action.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the Senate, said today that Democrats fear Republicans would win the seat in a special election.
“The only way to clear the air and to have a successor chosen in Illinois that everybody can have confidence in, and a process that they can have confidence in, would be to have a special election,” McConnell said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
Reid plans to meet McConnell on Monday to discuss a solution, the Associated Press reported.
Reid said he plans to meet with Burris on Wednesday.
Nevada’s state Republican Party chairman Sue Lowden defended Reid and slammed efforts to play the race card against him.
“You can call Harry Reid a lot of things, and I've called him my fair share,” Lowden said in a statement today.
“But 'racist' is certainly not one of them," Lowden said. “Harry may be wrong on 99 out of 100 issues politically -- including national defense, taxes, spending, health care, immigration, education and Social Security -- but to suggest that he's not comfortable around black people and wants to keep the Senate 'lily white' is absurd on its face and thoroughly offensive to all Nevadans of every political stripe.”
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Caught on tape - Deny Deny Deny
Reid, in an extensive interview on "Meet the Press," also suggested that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is making up the details.
Drag out the GOP to say that Harry Reid is not a racist. Where are Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Commish Rory Reid.
Harry would not have this problem if he would stay out of other State's business.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid fancies himself as the Democrat's kingmaker and as such has long directed Nevada politicians such as Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Commish Rory Reid our future Governor.
Harry Reid has made his millions with shady insider land deals and that gratuitous book advance. But more "power" is what he seeks.
But while Harry Reid said "Gov. Blagojevich's efforts to try to tarnish others while the cloud of suspicion continues to grow over him are shameful, as are his efforts to further betray the public trust and sow seeds of division," he has gotten caught on tape in the growing south-side of Chicago machine politics.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid didn't want Black Rep. Jesse Jackson in the Senate, a point he made clear to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a conversation about filling Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
The Nevada Democrat made a call to Blagojevich on Dec. 3 to discuss the seat vacated by the president-elect, Reid spokesman Jim Manley confirmed. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that during their discussion Reid pressured Blagojevich not to appoint Jesse Jackson Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones. Six days later, authorities arrested Blagojevich for allegedly trying to sell Obama's seat.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero says the call shows Reid has a conflict of interest in vowing not to accept black former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris for the seat.
Reid is clearly opposed to Illinois selecting their own Senator and as a racist - blacks need not apply.
It looks like O'l Harry is a closet bigot and got his big a** caught on tape telling Blago not to appoint Jackson Jr. Now he wants everyone to believe that he just calls up governors to see who they want to fill Senate seats and that he puts no pressue on them to appoint any particular person. Sit down Harry, you're a bigot and a racist and you've been called out! Burris has every right to be seated. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of "Racegate", the Demos attempt to keep the Senate lily white!
Wow. Fox News and the R-J editorial page are sending people to the Sun website. How nice.
When the head of the Nevada Republican party states that it's wrong to call Reid racist, and right-wingers continue to march in goosestep--uh, lockstep--with the day's talking points, you know there's a problem on the other side of the aisle.
Reid has done some good things either as the majority leader or the minority leader.
During his reign, we got two new excellent Supreme Court judges.
He helped get the original Iraq War resolution passed.
He properly did not try to get a bill pass that called for the immediate removal of US troops in Iraq.
FISA was recently re-authorized with a few changes.
He properly resisted a push for impeach or other conduct other bogus "criminal" investigations of Bush and his administration.
He joined hands with Bush and worked hard to get a bailout bill passed for those elite financial institutions.
He has not tried to pass a law to shut-down GITMO and he has not tried to pass a law to give full American legal rights to those at GITMO. In fact, he helped pass a law that gave legislative authority for the Bush administration to conduct military tribunals for the bad guys at GITMO that specifically excluded right of Habeas Corpus.
He is against gay marriage and has said that he supported the Nevada's ban on gay marriage.
Reid is all right.
Harry,
you have got to realize that Nevadans and the Country are all tired of pointing blame and never accepting critisism.
Do us a favor and resign, you think everybody around you should so I just figured that you might accept your own medicine.
I realize that I am talking crazy, but with all the backroom deals and sweetheart money ventures you're involved in you would be able to retire to a nice double-wide in the sprawling metropolis of searchlight.
There is no good reason not to seat Burris. The Illinois governor is still the governor and a case against him has not been sustained. It may lead to problems in the future, but right now there is mostly ignorance. Reid should support the law and not declare himself to be above and beyond the law. Dirty Harry is not the law - he is a united states senator and a leader by reason of seniority and not by reason of sanity. Ok, I predict that the courts will force the seating of Burris who meets the requirements of the constitution as to age and residency and who was appointed by a governor who arguably is still the governor and up to now there is no reason to believe that he will be removed - the process is in early stages and to base opinions on tapes that are a flawed source does not constitute disqualification of the governor. Ok, go Burris!
There is of course the problem that jfnance points out that the two parties support the same bankrupt positions and neither have the will to make the country better. Hopefully the Obama years will be a little better and once in a while perhaps things done will make a bit of sense.
"Do us a favor and resign..."
You have a significant national representative from your state and you want him to resign? Get real!
Harry is doing us well in Washington. The Reid bashers overlook the loss of having him center stage. Considering our population and relative representation in Washington, it would be a significant loss!
Don't fall for the diversion here. This has nothing to do with Harry Reid (or Barack Obama, remember?) and everything to do with Blogovich. This is slash and burn.
What has Reid done for Nevada?
Yucca mnt is alive. He can't not even get his own party to kill it.
Nevada is ranked 49th Federal Spending Received Per Dollar of Taxes Paid by State.
Reid is supposely the 2nd most powerful person in DC according to one study.
It seems that he is not using that power to help Nevada. I think DailyKos ranks higher in priority than Nevada in Reid's view.
Harry Reid will not kill Yucca Mtn because all of his lawyer and lobby friends are making a killing in the lawsuits and litigation.
As far as significant things he has done for Nevada, you would have to be a relative or a mormon to have been impacted. He wrote the book on nepotism and back room deals.
Harry Reid voted to keep Bill Clinton in power and doing his job while he was getting hummers from Monica, now maybe if only Blagovich's problem was "just" a sexual one.
Harry "the two faced" Reid is an embarassment. Sorry "johnevegas" if you cannot be on his re-election campaign but this guy is toxic.
Well I'm somewhat surprised that those who call themselves "conservative" are now complaining that Reid isn't earmarking enough money for Nevada.
I guess all that talk about small government and wasteful spending is just talk. Instead, they also condemn Reid when he turns down pork for the state of Nevada.
You can't complain about taxes every day(I'm looking at you, jfnance32) and simultaneously complain about school spending. It's one or the other.
Next time I hear one of those conservatives whining about earmarks, I'll remember these comments.
"You can't complain about taxes ... and simultaneously complain about school spending. It's one or the other."
Aw! You're no fun at all. You and your sensible logic and stuff. This is not the place for that! This is where emotion and hyperbole reign. Remember, facts are liberal, so knock it off with using facts all the time.
Mr. "I bought a piece land and sold a piece of land" talks in circles so much he doesn't remember where he started and forgets where he's supposed to end. Hey Harry, if you learned that telling the whole truth would be advantagious to your credibility you might not have to worry about your chance of being re-elected.
Reid cannot get his own party to vote to stop Yucca mountain nuclear repository?
The good senators of the other 49 states aren't about to vote to risk the waste staying in their backyards.
Yucca mountain it akin to Peter Griffins [Family Guy] take on sex with K B.
"You can kick ,scream and resist all you want , but, it's gonna happen"!
Yup - there's no liar like an old liar.
It's abundantly clear Boss Reid would have happily allowed Duckworth or Madigan to be appointed so an appointment by Blago per se is not what's behind this drama.
What's behind this is that Boss Reid thinks it is up to him to hand pick U.S. Senators. When Blago snubbed the Boss' demands it signaled there would be at least one Senator that was not under his thumb so Reid has to throw a temper tantrum by not getting his way.
From what I can deduce from the attitudes of the commenters here, he's also not going to get his way in 2010.
This nonsense about race is NEVER going to end - when someone does like me/want me or feel I'm not qualified it's just about that - either they just don't want me, don't like me or feel I'm not qualified - irregardless of the color of my skin - why can't blacks understand that maybe someone just doesn't like them, want them or maybe they feel they aren't qualified either. Good grief - man up and stop complaining about being picked on - get over it already, ok?
It has already been determined that NO pick by that scum Blagojevich will be given the nod - so perhaps Burris should have said thanks, but no thanks to Blago and expressed a desire to wait until all this is resolved - then perhaps he would have stood a chance - no choice by Blago - be they black OR white stands a snowballs chance in hell of being accepted simply because of the scandal already attached to the appointment of this seat.
Over time, blacks have greatly suffered in US. There were slaves once and then we only offered them 2nd class citizenship and then they have to endure racism. Their suffering has been greatly reduced but the US stills owes them for the past suffering.
Obama was the only black US senator. The state of Illinois should appoint another black. I am sure that there are tons of qualified blacks in Illinois.
Why Reid did do a thumbs down on 4 blacks? I have no clue. Surely, one of them was qualified.
Have to disagree here - I owe them nothing - I never did anything to them or their ancestors so let's get over that mindset real quick. They were sold into slavery by their own people -
"I never did anything to them or their ancestors so let's get over that mindset real quick."
That's not the equation, at least in my mind.
To me it's about the collective impact of slavery on an entire race (blacks) and the collective benefit for an entire race (whites). Wealth upon wealth has been built on the backs of slaves. We all benefit, downstream, from the wealth that was created long ago, for free, by enslaved black people.
It is not about your personal feelings or logic at all. On that level, you are correct. You never did anything to blacks personally. Me neither, although I do despise Lionel Ritchey and make that known all the time. But as a collective, our race has.
In all fairness, same with Barry Manilow. So I guess that's a draw.
The official government policies have very efficiently enslaved and murdered people. Just ask the 100,000 plus civilians we have killed in IRAQ and the 25,000 kids who starve every day. Ok, so in general I think that the comments about the governor of Illinois being scum point out the problem in this country. The comments are scummy. The Gov has been convicted of nothing. He is similar to Jim Gibbons in his level of stupidness. The secretary of state in Illinois should be removed because he appears to not understand that he has an obligation to act in a way that allows the citizens to have representation and it is not up to him to make up new laws and standards. I say he should be impeached ahead of the Governor. Oh, I was once a resident of Illi-noise and voted in a primary for a guy with a weird name who became the Senator and now the Pres-elect. Ok, Go Burris - he will win in the courts.
Everyone had something 'bad' done to them at one time or another - maybe someone owes me something for being molested, or maybe because my grandparents had to leave Poland, or maybe because no one in my family (of drunks) encouraged more education - this list is endless - many things have been done to many people, be it directly or indirectly - but that gives no cause for all this whining and moaning about things of the past - the time to get on with ones life and become responsible for its' direction is NOW and blaming the ills of the past on the problems of today does little to help resolve our immediate issues.