Harry Reid - Extremely effective but extremely low-key.

[SharonAnn]

After all the complaints, I've wondered somebody would write an article about how effective Harry Reid is. Quiet but extremely effective. Remember, he's the one who convinced Sen. Jeffords to switch from GOP to Independent and caucus with the Dems to give Dems the majority back in 2000.

HARRY REID: THE DEALER FROM NEVADA

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucrr/20091226/cm_ucrr/harryreidthedealerfromnevada

I once questioned Reid's talents in a conversation with another senator, a lively one, Barbara Boxer of California. She said: "I've never seen such a difference in a public man and a private one. Harry may not be a great speaker, but he is the greatest party leader I've ever seen when the cameras are off -- perhaps as good as any in history."

<snip>

According to Noam Levey and Janet Hook of the Los Angeles Times, Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, no shrinking violet he, met with Senate Democrats when it seemed likely that health care reform was headed for death by a thousand cuts, and the longer it was debated the more blood would trickle. What to do? Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, another go-getter, told Emanuel there was only one chance: turn everything over to Reid, trust him and leave him alone.

It worked. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. The Senate was revealed for what it now is, a marketplace with two sets of merchants who hate each other, which made Reid's leadership at least as impressive as Lyndon Johnson's dramatic arm-twisting and legal bribery when he was majority leader. As powerful as Johnson was in the 1950s, he still operated in a country and body that could produce bipartisan majorities on issues from national security to public security and public health.

No more. The air is toxic here. There is a banana republic smell to the Republican strategies of unanimous opposition to most anything. McConnell, too, is an extraordinarily effective leader, though one suspects he is on the wrong side of history.

It ain't over 'til it's over. More Democratic deals are in the offing. But if dealing is the name of the game -- and it is -- then President Obama and his party are lucky to have a quiet dealer who grew up a hundred miles from Las Vegas.

[DJ13]

1. .....

[MercutioATC]

2. Words escape me.

What a steaming pile of horseshit.

[Individualist]

3. +1

[grytpype]

5. :cry:

[leftstreet]

4. LOLOLOLOL

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Thank you for that!

[Forkboy]

6. DUzy!

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. they used to judge effective leaders by how they worked with the opposition

now we credit Harry Reid for almost being able to pass limp noodle legislation with a supermajority after cutting shady deals in his own caucus.

[XOKCowboy]

8. I was sure this was an Onion headline..

It reads like pure satire.

[madrchsod]

9. better than mike mansfield ?....i do`t think so

if he`s so great we really are in deeper shit than i thought...