Sen. Harry Reid To Retire In 2016

The New York Times has the big news:

Senator Harry Reid, the tough tactician who has led Senate Democrats since 2005, will not seek re-election next year, bringing an end to a three-decade congressional career that culminated with his push of President Obama’s ambitious agenda against fierce Republican resistance. Mr. Reid, 75, who suffered serious eye and facial injuries in a Jan. 1 exercise accident at his Las Vegas home, said he had been contemplating retiring from the Senate for months. He said his decision was not attributable either to the accident or to his demotion to minority leader after Democrats lost the majority in November’s midterm elections. “I understand this place,” Mr. Reid said. “I have quite a bit of power as minority leader.”

His departure at the end of 2016 will create an opening both at the top of the Senate Democratic hierarchy and in a Senate contest that would have been a megaspending slugfest in the presidential battleground of Nevada. Conservatives such as Charles G. and David H. Koch, the billionaire brothers who were a favorite target of Reid criticism in 2014, would have spared no expense in trying to oust him. Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who helped Democrats capture the Senate in 2006 and has led their political messaging operation, is considered the favorite to succeed Mr. Reid as party leader. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, could also be a contender for the job, but it is unclear how strongly he would pursue it.

Wut

Harry Reid Concedes Senate Leadership

From The GOP: Senate Democrats Are Pretending That They Aren't Democrats

GOP: Harry Reid Will Be Fired

GOP Web Ad: Fire Sen. Harry Reid

RNC: Stop Obama, Fire Reid

Today In Porno Pete Hypocrisy

And now....we go back in time.

"We call for a restoration of Senate traditions, returning to the majority vote on Advice and Consent the Constitution mandates. While there is no doubt that the Minority’s filibusters have helped Republicans win recent elections, we are certain that Republicans will do the right thing for themselves and the Nation by ending the partisan obstruction now. We call on the Senate Leadership and the Republican Majority to end the filibusters on appellate nominees and well before a Supreme Court vacancy occurs." - Peter LaBarbera, signing on to a 2005 open letter to the US Senate.

Today In FRC Hypocrisy

"Democrats used a parliamentary trick to change the Senate rules and strip the minority of the little power they had. In doing so, they blew up a 225-year-old process and cleared the way for a simple majority to rubber stamp the President's outrageous nominees. Instead of requiring 60 votes to end debate on a nomination, liberals lowered the threshold to 51 -- virtually guaranteeing the majority party a blank check to confirm anyone they want, regardless of how extreme or unqualified. In the short term, it will help consolidate more power for Democrats, silence conservatives, and end what little negotiating the Senate does. Of course, Senator Reid is only in favor of rewriting the rules when it suits his purposes. Apparently, the Majority Leader lives by the same creed as the President: if you don't like the law, break it." - Hate group leader Tony Perkins, via email.

And now...we go back in time.

"Partisan special interests have threatened judicial independence again by inserting ideology into the Senate confirmation process of federal judges. Now the Minority has changed 215 years of Senate tradition by abusing the filibuster for the first time against nominees with clear majority support. The Senate must act as steward of the federal courts by returning the power to confirm judges to the Constitution’s simple majority requirement.  The unprecedented abuse of the filibuster is a device intended to undermine the prerogatives of the Presidency as well as the tradition of the Senate. It must not stand." - Hate group leader Tony Perkins, in an open letter to the US Senate dated April 4th, 2005.

(Bolding is motherfucking mine.)

New Filibuster Rules For Senate

Via Buzzfeed:

After months-long threats and last-minute deals to avoid a major rules change in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid led the chamber in eliminating the 60-vote majority needed to vote on most presidential nominations. The vote began at a little past noon, with 52 Democrats voting to eliminate the 60-vote threshold needed to invoke cloture and avoid a filibuster — a threshold that Democrats said has kept too many of President Obama’s nominees from a final vote in the Senate. Democratic Sens. Carl Levin, Joe Manchin and Mark Pryor voted against the rule change. No Republicans voted for the change.

Fox News is very unhappy.

It's a defining feature, for better or worse, of the U.S. Senate -- the power of the minority to gum up the works through what's known as a filibuster. While this makes the Senate one of the most deliberative (read that as, slowest) legislative bodies in the world, it also prevents legislation and appointments from moving too fast. But now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is moving to undermine that right. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell charged that Reid's attempt proves the Democrats are willing to "do and say just about anything" to get their way. The particulars of what Reid is doing are highly technical but make Republicans seethe.

Of course, this could come back to haunt the Democrats the next time there's a GOP majority in the Senate and a Republican president in the White House.

Senate Mormons Helped Win ENDA

The New York Times reports that ENDA passed yesterday not just with the help of the top Mormons in the Senate such as Majority Leader Harry Reid, but with the de facto blessing (or at least, without the objections) of the church itself.

Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, who at 79 is one of the Senate’s longest-serving members, became the first Republican to signal he would reverse his opposition as the bill faced a crucial vote in committee. He voted against a similar bill the last time it came up in the Senate — 17 years ago — but changed his mind earlier this year after Gordon H. Smith, a fellow Mormon and former Republican senator, convinced him there was nothing in it that violated church doctrine. “The church does want to be helpful where we can be, without violating our own conscience,” Mr. Smith, a former bishop, said in an interview. And as the bill approached a vital vote earlier this week, Senator Dean Heller, the Nevada Republican who has taught Sunday school at his Mormon church, provided the crucial 60th vote to break a filibuster. In the end, all but two of the Senate’s seven Mormons voted yes. Their support for including civil rights protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people is the latest example of a broader evolution by some of the most visible members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have come to cautiously embrace gay rights. It is a remarkable turnabout from just five years ago, when the church faced a maelstrom of criticism for backing the initiative in California that took away the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The LDS-owned Deseret News notes that ENDA is as far it goes.

Politico reported that Reid, who is LDS, told a group of reporters, most of them working for LGBT publications according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, that his social views have shifted over time to support issues like ENDA. He said he thought that was true of other Latter-day Saints. The church did not directly address the broad range of LGBT rights. It responded to media inquiries with its statement, which read in part, "As the church has said before, elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and may not necessarily be in agreement with one another or even with a publicly stated church position. "On the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the church has not taken a position. On the question of same-sex marriage, the church has been consistent in its support of traditional marriage while teaching that all people should be treated with kindness and understanding. If it is being suggested that the church’s doctrine on this matter is changing, that is incorrect."

Cloture To Be Filed On ENDA

Geidner has more at Buzzfeed:

Reid is likely to file a cloture petition on the bill this evening, a Democratic leadership aide told BuzzFeed Thursday, which would set a vote on the motion to proceed on debate of ENDA for Monday evening. If the motion to proceed, which requires 60 votes, is agreed to, the Senate would debate and eventually vote on the bill. The vote would be the first Senate vote on the legislation since 1996 and the first vote ever on the legislation with both sexual orientation and gender identity protections. Advocates say that they have clear support from 59 senators, including all 55 Democrats in the Senate and four Republicans, with a handful of other Republican senators as potential yes votes.

I'll spare you today's email from Eugene!

Senate To Hear ENDA By Thanksgiving

Chris Geidner has the news at Buzzfeed:

Majority Leader Harry Reid will announce on Monday that he will be bringing legislation banning anti-LGBT employment discrimination to the floor for consideration before Thanksgiving. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban most employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, was passed out of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee with bipartisan support earlier this year. “When the Senate convenes at 2 pm today, Senator Reid will announce that he will bring ENDA to the floor this work period, which ends just before Thanksgiving,” Reid adviser Faiz Shakir told BuzzFeed. “Exact floor timing remains to be determined based on how votes go this week, but it could come up as early as next week.” In order to pass the legislation, it likely will require 60 votes to meet the threshold to overcome any filibuster attempt from opposition — a threshold advocates say they are “optimistic” they will secure by the time any vote is taken.

ENDA has virtually zero chance of passage in the House.

BREAKING: Shutdown Deal Reached?

Stand by...

Shutdown Deal Might Be Close

Ted Cruz Had A Bad Sunday

.@KarlRove: This was a strategy laid out by #SenMikeLee and #SenTedCruz without any consultation. #FNS #GovtShutdown
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 22, 2013

Mediaite recaps:

Anonymous GOP staffers and then fellow lawmakers spent Thursday and Friday taking shots at him, but things seriously escalated Sunday morning, when Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said he had received opposition research in advance of Cruz’s appearance—from other Republicans. Wallace patiently but relentlessly grilled Cruz over how he intended to get the defunding CR through the Senate, as he only had the votes to stop cloture, which would mean filibustering his own bill and shutting down the government. Cruz repeatedly answered that if the government did hang a gone-to-lunch sign on the Capitol doors, it would all be thanks to Senate Majority Leader of Jerks Harry Reid’s use of “brute political power.” Wallace didn’t buy this for a second. “You say this is ‘brute political power,’” Wallace said. “It’s Senate Rule 22.”

Senate Vote On Syria Is Wednesday

Wednesday is also the anniversary of 9-11 and that has Teabagistan very upset.

Sen. Harry Reid On ENDA

Source.

Half Of Congress Files DOMA Brief

Almost half of the sitting members of Congress today filed a joint Supreme Court brief in the support of the overturn of DOMA. Via press release:

Today, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Ranking Constitution Subcommittee Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in the House, and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in the Senate, along with House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Ranking House Judiciary Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL), are filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in U.S. v. Edith Schlain Windsor, a landmark challenge to Section 3 of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).  Section 3 defines marriage for purposes of federal law as “only a legal union between one man and one woman,” excluding same-sex couples from all marriage-based federal responsibilities and rights.  A total of 172 Members of the House and 40 Members of the Senate – including LGBT Equality Caucus Co-Chairs Jared Polis (D-CO), David Cicilline (D-RI), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Mark Takano (D-CA), as well as Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) – signed onto the brief.

These 212 Members decided to participate as amici in this case because they want the Supreme Court to hear the full story from Congress, and to explain why they believe that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional.  They disagree with the arguments being made by lawyers hired to defend DOMA in court by the House Majority following the divided 3-2 vote of the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG).  The amicus brief filed today makes clear that BLAG does not speak for Congress, and that many members believe that Section 3 should be struck down because there simply is no legitimate federal interest in denying married same-sex couples the legal security, rights and responsibilities that federal law provides to all other married couples.  As the brief explains: “DOMA imposes a sweeping and unjustifiable federal disability on married same-sex couples.”

Hit the link for the full list of signees.

Harry Reid Hospitalized After Car Crash

Not a lot of details yet. Via ABC Las Vegas:

Senator Harry Reid was hospitalized after a crash on Interstate 15 Friday. The crash happened just after 1 p.m. on I-15 northbound near Sahara, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol. Multiple cars were involved in the crash, including four cars in Senator Reid's caravan. Two other cars outside of the caravan were involved. The extent of Reid's injuries were not immediately clear.