Why Harry Reid Will Fail Us

He will fail because the man puts on a shitty show. Remember his all-night-session on Reed-Levin, the Amendment that would have begun to bring our troops home last spring?

The night merely confused America about who was filibustering. Our retarded news media helped confuse America, yes, but can you blame people for not knowing who was being obstructionist? Consider the footage if one tuned into the debate on TV or the local news station took a clip of the debate to Voice Over:

• 21 Democratic Senators standing at the "Call to Action by Candlelight" rally in Upper Senate Park where many croaked out long speeches to an audience of protesters and staff.
• 57 Democratic House members who attended the "Call to "Action by Candlelight," many of whom also blathered long, wandering speeches.
• 33 Democratic Senators who spoke long, boring, unfocused speeches on the floor of the Senate.

Why! The goal of the night was NOT to change course in Iraq. Reid knew he picked up 2 votes. The goal was to tell America that Republicans are the problem. Bad run-of-show.

Certainly you can count of FauxNews to lie for the benefit of Republicans... their headline ran: "The majority of senators voted against withdrawal".

By a 52-47 vote, the Senate on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have started bringing troops home within 120 days of passage.

Other news outlets flat out didn't understand what happened. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's website led the next morning with "Filibuster Fails to Force Iraq Vote." Yup. Nothing happened. Harry Reid, your stage management sucks.

And because so many lazy news readers will take and print emails from @GOP.com, during the July 17 edition of ABC's Good Morning America, no surprise that co-anchor Diane Sawyer falsely claimed that Reid "vows to filibuster, talking all night to close out all topics besides a vote on Iraqi troop withdrawals."

Me: No idiot. It is the Republicans who are filibustering the withdrawal proposal by requiring that 60 senators vote for the amendment in order for it to pass.

Imaginary Dianne shrugs, 'Oh, 'cause that's not what it looked like.'

She's right. If you go to the Senate Democrats website and look at the story - you see endless clips of Democratic Senators speaking. THAT LOOKS LIKE A FILIBUSTER, MORON.

The videos you put up sucked. Some citizen figured out that this boring page on thomas.loc.gov was the key, where he tracked that:

* 3:16 PM Senator Lott objects to changing course in Iraq
* 4:02 PM Senator Lott objects to changing course in Iraq
* 6:25 PM Senator Hutchison objects to changing course in Iraq
* 6:31 PM Senator Bond objects to changing course in Iraq
* 7:35 PM Senator Warner objects to changing direction in Iraq

The genius kid put this up video montage up instead. This is more like it:


Harry, you have to stage manage. If any Dem talks longer than 1 minute, ask the Senate President for a minute of the speakers' time. This shall be to serve as a reminder to the speaking Democrat that they need to ask that the Amendment go immediately to a vote.

Then, somewhere on the other side, a Republican will object. "I object" they'll say; but it will be off camera. So when the Senate President acknowledges the Republican, now he'll be on Camera. It's right then that the previously speaking Democrat asks the Republican for clarification. This will put the two into split screen on camera. Now America's news feeds have the face of the Republican who is objecting to the up or down vote.

Edit together each time one of them objects.

That's how we win the narrative.

Stage management! Also, you need runners to move Senator Menendez' placard to behind the Democrat who is speaking.

I liked that.

Harry, keep it simple. And keep it aimed at them.

Last time, you said this:

Reid: "Republicans are using a filibuster to block us from even voting on an amendment that could bring the war to a responsible end. They are protecting the President rather than protecting our troops. They are denying us an up or down – yes or no – vote on the most important issue our country faces."

That's pretty good. It would be now that you should have called for a vote. This time, DO.

Or, how about another time, on another go around, also say:

Harry Reid: "The media has said that I am calling an all-night session. I have not called an all-night session. We can go home in 20 minutes if the Republicans will agree actually vote on this bill. If this is an all-night session, it's because of them."

And then you call for a vote.

Here's another freebie:

Kennedy: "The majority want to bring the troops home. The majority of Republicans want to protect the president and keep his debacle going."

And then call for a vote, Ted.

Reid, you have Jon Soltz on board, ask him for a list of members of VoteVets who are surviving family of slain soldiers. Ask him for a list of members who have been killed in subsequent tours. Put together that list and for each name look up the names and ages of surviving family members.

Chuckie Schumer, you vomitous wind bag, take your section of that Soldier list and say this:

Schumer: "We are here tonight because Republican senators are afraid of an up-or-down vote. They are more concerned with supporting the President rather than the troops. So rather than continuing to beat my head against their insistence to support party over country, I'll remind them why we are here tonight: Corporal Brian Matthew Kennedy. Brian Kennedy was 25 when he died. He lived in Houston, Texas but he was born and grew up in Glenview, Ill., He called his mother on March 18 to tell her he was about to go into action. "It was very short and very special," she says of the call. Three days later he died when his helicopter crashed in Kuwait. On a website in his memory, his best friend from Illinois, Steve, wrote 'I always thought we'd know each other our entire lives.' Steve was actually right - only Brian's life ended 50 years too early."

And then call for a vote.

Keep the biography under a minute, call for a vote, and see if you can make it through the list of the slain soldiers.

Get Durbin to say this:

Durbin: Two years ago: My colleague from Mississippi, Sen. Trent Lott said that filibustering is, quote, "wrong. It’s not supportable under the Constitution. And if they insist on persisting with these filibusters, I’m perfectly prepared to blow the place up." The office of my colleague from Kentucky, Sen. Mitch McConnell said that, quote, "Senator McConnell always has and continues to fully support the use of what has become known as the ‘[nuclear]’ option in order to restore the norms and traditions of the Senate." Now that he's in the minority, that same man, Mitch McConnell says he'll filibuster all Iraq amendments, forever. The Republicans message to America is simple, America, you need to elect 60 Democrats to the United States Senate if you want any change in Iraq. A simple majority won't cut it. These Republicans will do anything to continue the Iraq debacle."

And then call for a vote.

Chris Dodd, get a list of quotations from Joe Lieberman from over the years, about the US 'turning the corner' in Iraq, and how 'things are getting better', or how whatever Bush wanted him to say that day was 'working very well', toss in Cheney's "last throes" quote too, and then say:

Dodd: "The American People disagree. More and more Americans are seeing this war in Iraq differently than the elected officials who I just quoted. The American people might forgive those Representatives for being wrong on the most important issue of our time, but they won't ever forget. Their memories will only be hardened as the list list of American dead grows longer. And these Americans vote."

And then call for a vote.

Also, you need to keep track of the Republicans' use of "Desperate Buzzphrases" keep updated on the current count:

• "Retreat and defeat"
• "Cut and run"
• "Run and leave"
• "Embarrass the president"
• retreat
• emboldening the enemy
• MoveOn.org

Use these stats for highlights like this:

Feingold: "So far tonight, in order to avoid embarrassing yourself on this vote, you've fallen back on Desperate Buzzphrases so hard that it's actually more embarrassing. You've used FOX approved White House talking points XX number of times. You've even fear mongered about a website you hate XX number of times alone! Hate and fear have no place in here. This is a Cathedral of Democracy and therefore I..."

And then call for a vote.