Harry Reid: Obama Should be "More Firm" With GOP
President Barack Obama waves alongside US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during a fundraiser for Reid at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 8, 2010.
/ SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty ImagesSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in an interview with a Las Vegas television station that President Obama has at times been insufficiently forceful in his dealings with the Republican party.
"On a few occasions, I think he should have been more firm with those on the other side of the aisle," the Demotic Nevada senator told KSNV. "He is a person who doesn't like confrontation. He's a peacemaker. And sometimes I think you have to be a little more forceful. And sometimes I don't think he is."
The White House declined to comment on Reid's statements.
Reid pointed to the health care fight to back up his argument, saying there were times "when I wanted the folks in the White House behind me."
President Obama campaigned for Reid last week, raising $800,000 for his campaign. The senator is in a tough primary fight against Tea Party-aligned Republican Sharron Angle, who has cast Reid as more concerned with Washington dealmaking than his own constituents.
Popular in Politics
- Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice" 420 Comments
- Poll: Most think IRS targeting was deliberate 155 Comments
- Obama: "Full focus" is on recovery from Oklahoma tornado 74 Comments
- IRS scandal highlights leadership vacancies
- Top IRS official to invoke 5th Amendment at congressional testimony 83 Comments
- Va. GOP candidate: Planned Parenthood "more lethal" for blacks than KKK 1120 Comments
- Former IRS chief: "I can't say" what led to IRS targeting
- Letter to a young scandalmonger
------------------------
Hastert Launches a Partisan Policy
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 27, 2004; Page A01
In scuttling major intelligence legislation that he, the president and most lawmakers supported, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will pass bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.
Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping to draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert (R-Ill.) now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Did you get that Robbie? Can you read? Let me repeat for you " Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution".
But here, I believe, Reid is addresing the perceived weakness by some about one who faces screaming, lathered critics with aplomb. Some mistake aplomb for weakness.....
Harry, Prez. Obama is a paper-tiger, much like his socialistic gang of supporters in Washington, DC. They "talk" tough but they are weak in their actions--look at this oil crisis.
By the way, how could Prez. Obama get more forceful??? Forbid the Republicans from expressing their opinions in public-you forget freedom of speech--or would you like to take away that citizen's freedom also.