Harry Reid Responds To Bush: "We Are Speaking For The American People, He Isn't"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/10/harry-reid-responds-to-bush-we-are-speaking-for-the-american-people-he-isnt

Harry Reid responds to Bush: ”We are speaking for the American people, he isn’t.”

By: John Amato on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 5:40 PM - PDT
Harry Reid slammed Bush in a response to The Prez's attacks on the Senate's budget proposal…Bush is demanding that he gets what HE wants only….Mitch McConnell was on earlier, but I couldn't watch him. My eyeballs hurt. (Now that wasn't very civil of me. What would David Broder think?)…Reid used our "Rubber Stamp," analogy…Yea for the blogs…So has Pelosi….

The president is inviting us down to the White House with preconditions," Reid said. "Things are not OK in Iraq. As the Pope said on Easter Sunday, a slaughter is taking place in Iraq. The Pope further said nothing good is coming from Iraq. The president must realize that. He has to deal with Congress. We are an independent branch of this government, and by our Constitution we have equal say that he has. And he's got to listen to us. Because we are speaking for the American people; he isn't." (Transcript below the fold)

Reid: "He wants to go down there and say, 'I want a clean bill.' That's not negotiating. I mean, I am — prided myself on being a pretty good lawyer, trial lawyer. I've settled lots and lots of cases. But you never settle a case going in saying, 'You can come and meet with me, but here's what the result's going to be before we meet.' That doesn't work. And the president has to realize it doesn't work in the practice of law, it doesn't work in the business world and it doesn't work in government."

[Straight Shooter]

1. The real question: "Is bush with the American people, or is he against us?" n/t

[Bobbieo]

3. If Bush is against the American people, who is going to stop him?

[bdamomma]

9. well remember when he said your with us or against us.

* is defiant.

[Cha]

10. bush has always been

Against We The People. But, we are in the process of taking back our government from those low-life pod people who took over Dec 12, 2000.

[Straight Shooter]

14. We need to use his own words against him.

Pod people, you got that right. Invasion of the democracy snatchers.

[senseandsensibility]

2. If this means that the Dems aren't going to fold

like a cheap suit in deference to the chimp's "charm", I'm all for it.

[Big Pappa]

6. Yeah but

Senator Reid has not done much besides talk. Actions speak a lot louder. Not just saying you will not go to the WH to meet with George

[senseandsensibility]

12. He's not going to the White House?

I didn't even get that from the link. If that's true, I'm encouraged.

[Wilber_Stool]

4. The war of words is heating up.

What I want to see is some action.

[InternalDialogue]

5. Bush's idea of negotiating:

"Here's where I want to end up. Now you come and talk to me about how we get there."

It's the same stance he took with Iran. "You dismantle your nuclear reactor. Then we'll talk about how you dismantle your nuclear reactor."

He has a fundamental inability to understand compromise.

[Bobbieo]

7. How are we going to stop him? It is time for ACTION! NOW!

We have to draw the line somehow and here is the place to start.

[bdamomma]

8. we have to apply pressure on our Reps and Senators not to cave in.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. Support Harry Reid with e-mail. Here's the link:

http://reid.senate.gov/contact/email_form.cfm

The page says he won't reply to e-mail except from Nevadans, which is standard, but does allow anyone to submit comments. Staffers count the comments so the more who say "Stand firm against Bush, get us out of Iraq" the more he'll know there is support for the Democratic bill. He also might appreciate hundreds or thousands of e-mails that could be printed out to show at press conferences to show that he has support.


Pelosi won't accept e-mail except from Californians, which I object to since she is Speaker. If you're a Californian, mention this when you e-mail her. I don't expect her to respond to people who are not constituents of hers but think she should accept input from anyone. Most in Congress do so, in my experience.

Calls are good, too, but since the anthrax scare, letters are a lost cause.


"Give 'em hell, Harry!" was a cry when Truman was president. Truman's reply was "I tell the truth and they think it's hell."

Reid may not be Truman but "Give 'em hell, Harry!" is still a great Democratic slogan.

:kick:

[riderinthestorm]

13. This speaks to middle managers and middle lawyers and middle dealers everywhere

I love the language: "that's not negotiating..." that is so true. Anyone who has ever sweated a deal knows that you don't play cards with this kind of vocabulary and hope to get to the end zone.

Bu*h is shooting himself in the foot with middle America who DO have to try to go into a deal sweating. If they knew the deal was a bust to begin with, well hell, that just makes the whole process black and white - anyone who deals understands Bu*h's comments mean he is simply being an asshole.