Incompetence of Pelosi and Reid

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have proven that they are ineffective leaders. Initially, they seemed like they were going to fulfill the hope of providing America with real leadership. Their First 100 Days strategy in which they pushed through a number of needed bills was brilliant. People understood that America needed these things and not too many Republicans stood in their way. However, the honeymoon was soon over once the Republicans got reorganized.

The biggest knock against Pelosi and Reid is that they simply do not understand the importance of political theater.

When the Roadblock Republicans filibustered hundreds of bills, amendments and even non-binding resolutions, Reid stood by. He stood by the gentleman's agreement by which merely threatening a filibuster forced a vote of cloture which requires a 60 vote super-majority. Why didn't he call the Roadblock Republicans out and make them actually filibuster every single time they threatened it? He did this once and the Republicans looked stupid.

While Reid has a majority by the hairs on Joe Lieberman's chin, Pelosi has an unruly group of Bush Dog Democrats. These congresscritters vote with the Republicans as much as they vote with their own party. On the big issues like Iraq and FISA, the Republicans can count on their votes. She rarely, if ever, whipped them into shape like she did during the honeymoon and forced them to support the Democratic majority in the House.

Pelosi and Reid favor decorum over strategy. They favor playing fair over accomplishing anything. They favor caving in when Bush and the DC pundits say it'll be bad for Democrats [cue the scary music] if they stand up for our constitution and the rule of law. The Republican shenanigans in the House this week has caught the national media's attention. It's based upon a lie that Drill Here, Drill Now will lower gas prices, but it is the kind of political theater that Pelsosi and Reid simply do not understand.

I hope members of the Minnesota Congressional delegation (nudge, nudge, wink, wink to Klobuchar, Franken, Oberstar, Ellison, Walz, McCollum, Madia, Sarvi & Tinklenberg) vote for someone else to fill their roles in January of 2009. We need bold leaders.

We need leaders who understand when to upstage the Republicans. The Republicans have not been about bipartisanship and cooperation since Newt Gingrich swept into power with his Contract On America. We need leaders who are willing to force the Republicans to shut down the Senate every time they want to filibuster. We need leaders with a spine who are willing to stand up to the Bush Dogs and their Republican talking points. We need someone to say "support this now" or pay the price later."