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Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Harry Reid
John McCain
Sun Topics
Sun Archives
- Going after mining tax, despite the Harry Reid factor (1-17-2010)
- With a year-plus to go, rethinking Harry Reid’s race (10-20-2009)
- Why there's hope for Reid: Nevada isn't South Dakota (10-18-2009)
- Harry Reid to launch TV ads Friday in re-election campaign (10-15-2009)
- Reid taking punches from the left, too (10-11-2009)
- No front-runner among the five who would challenge Harry Reid (10-10-2009)
- Joe Biden to attend Nevada fundraiser for Harry Reid (10-8-2009)
- Harry Reid true to his word to John Ensign (10-6-2009)
- Is Harry Reid moderate on health care, or keeping powder dry for final fight? (10-4-2009)
Tonight is the final performance of “The Rivalry,” a play that takes audiences at the historic Ford’s Theater on an itinerant journey through the Lincoln-Douglas senatorial debates that defined national politics in the 1858 midterm election.
The Presidents Day weekend show is a clever and timely reminder that politics is about choices that shape history. Then, as now, divisive politics polarized the nation, and men faced one another with the politician’s arsenal of wit, facts and barbs.
Take the fiery relationship between two neighboring senators, Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada.
Flinty personalities both, the 70-somethings easily hurl arrows at each other between periods of apparent peace.
Their politics differ, no doubt — McCain the former Republican nominee for president; Reid, the majority leader who is working to usher President Barack Obama’s agenda through the Senate.
But as both face difficult re-elections this year, they can find currency in attacking each other as they make the case to keep their jobs.
Here is Reid recently on McCain’s return to senatorial life after the 2008 campaign: “John is a great name-caller. The election’s over. He should leave Barack Obama alone and join with us to do good things for the country.”
McCain shot back by taunting Reid over his unpopularity at home: “I think the people of Nevada are giving him their response.”
McCain can clearly cash in politically on any jabs at Reid. Establishment Washington is unpopular these days. What Republican incumbent would shy from badgering the party in power?
“It’s not just McCain, it’s every Republican going after Reid,” one GOP aide said.
McCain faces a likely primary challenge from J.D. Hayworth, a former Republican congressman who was a conservative radio commentator until recently.
McCain has always had an uneasy relationship with the right, which has never been convinced he was one of them. And the regular attacks on Reid could shore up McCain’s conservative credentials.
McCain routinely targets Reid on the Senate floor, hitting close to home: He called the president’s decision to zero out funding for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain while supporting the development of new nuclear power plants “really an insult to one’s intelligence.” McCain personally encouraged Nevada’s Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki to enter the race to unseat Reid. (Krolicki declined.)
What Reid gets from these exchanges, aside from sharpening his sparring skills, is less clear.
Reid has made no secret of his disdain for McCain’s brusque style and the Arizonan’s stances on Yucca, sports betting and other issues that run counter to what Reid thinks are in Nevada’s interests. “I can’t stand John McCain,” he said in 2008.
It may seem an odd complaint from the Nevadan also known for impolitic frankness. But Reid is not seen as hotheaded. During the presidential campaign, Reid said McCain “doesn’t have the temperament to be president.”
After the election, Reid called McCain to bury the hatchet. It didn’t stay buried.
Attacking McCain could help rally Democrats to Reid’s re-election. McCain lost to Obama in a sweep unseen by a Democrat in Nevada since FDR. Yet independent voters are moving away from the party.
“I don’t know what good it does Reid,” the Republican aide said.
As far as rivalries go, this one seems more about disdain than competition. Neither man is trying to best the other for a new crown. Neither wants to be in the other’s place. Both are just old adversaries, fighting to keep their jobs.
McCain cannot shore up his conservative credentials while his daughter Megan is describing herself as a progressive Republican.
Apparently Megan missed the memo, there are NO progressive Republicans, only Progressive RHINO's.
I agree with McCain questioning the decision by the administration to stop the license process from continuing for Yucca Mountain without a viable alternative.
The ONLY reason Yucca Mountain was stopped was because of Reid. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is a real shame for the following reasons:
1. The alternative is to store nuclear spent fuel rods at the 'local' plants that are unsecure and unsafe (hey, if they were not, there would have been NO reason to peruse a storage site like Yucca Mountain).
2. Obama promised to let SCIENCE dictate decisions such as this one. Basically all the science was thrown out the window by pulling the license application. This move is incredibly stupid as the study by the NRC would have been completed in two years. So basically, you waste BILLIONS of tax dollars studying Yucca with NOTHING to show for it. At a minimum, the license investigation should have been continued.
3. The energy secretary selected a "Blue Ribbon Panel" to decide on the future of how we deal with Nuclear Waste, but it lacks credibility (see link below):
http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2010/01/nuclea...
4. Obama is promising cost efficient loans to build more nuclear power plants, but has no means of dealing with current, let alone future waste from the plants.
5. It would have cost approximately 300 million over the next two years to continue the license investigation. On the contrary, by pulling the license this administration has violated FEDERAL LAW as dictated by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and now opens law suits via the utility companies to the tune of tens of BILLIONS of dollars. This money will come out of YOUR tax dollars! (This move is beyond our comprehension at aBadReid.com)
All in all, this administration has let politics dictate decisions that should have been made by science.
BUT, the real shame is the general public knows NOTHING of these matters and instead, listens to the rhetoric and biased yellow journalism of the news media. The politicians like Reid KNOW this and play on it to their full advantage.
Bad Reid
Bad Senator
http://aBadReid.com
Yucca mountain is bad for Nevada. Why on earth would we want the rest of the country dumping their radioactive waste in our back yard. Each state should store the waste at their own site. It can be done safely. To transport it all across the country to dump it here is way more dangerous.
vc;
With all due respect, this is the EXACT type of political rhetoric I was talking about in my post above.
To store the waste at each state would NOT be as safe and secure as it would be at Yucca Mountain.
Transporting this material was also demonstrated as being safe. It can not "blow up" if in a wreck and its transportation canistors can withstand a locomotive impact and heat of a large fire.
As far as "in our back yard" comment, do you know where Yucca Mountain is located?
We have a staggering nuclear waste problem created by a political decision that we could solve simply by reversing that original decision. We also have a perfectly viable way of resurrecting clean and safe nuclear power simply by making the political decision to develop it.
There is no compelling reason to delay shifting our dependence from fossil to nuclear fuel, and redirecting our nuclear focus to Breeder Reactors. We have the ability to control our own energy destiny if we only have the courage to renounce past executive errors and to embrace viable new technologies.
http://www.argee.net/DefenseWatch/Nu...2...