Taegan Goddard's Political Wire just reported this snippet from a Fox News [mp3] interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC):
"When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch. This has been a capitulation in two weeks of dramatic proportions of policies that wouldn't have passed in the new Congress." Political Wire Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
Or, as TPM's headline had it: A "capitulation" of "dramatic proportions."
There is, shall we say, a slight whiff of sour grapes in the wind.
Another Graham gem:
"The lame duck session was meant to basically transition from one Congress to the next, not take every special interest item the liberals want and pass it in two weeks." [TPM]
That of course explains why the GOP used the 1998 lame-duck session to impeach Bill Clinton; they wanted to transition to the new Congress without Al Gore as president of the Senate. (That he would then have been president of the United States instead was an unfortunate, minor, detail.)
So far, under Reid's leadership, the Senate has:
- Outmaneuvered the homophobes with a double reverse-twist backflip to get DATA repeal passed (seems the first vote that he called, on the whole Defense Authorization bill, was part of the strategy);
- All but passed the New Start treaty (they just broke a filibuster by 67-28, which is more than the 2/3 needed for final ratification);
- May yet get the 9/11 First Responders bill past Republican obstructionism:
Chuck Schumer has come out and said that he's received assurances from Harry Reid that a vote on the 9/11 bill will come after New START. And it seems Dem efforts to go on offense on this issue is making conservative commentators and operatives very uncomfortable. Plum Line
OK, he hasn't done everything many of us here would like. But given the hand he's had to play with, he hasn't done too badly if he can make Lindsey Graham sound like a spoiled brat. (OK, that's not so hard to do.)
In the next Congress, that's going to be a lot harder. I'm not saying we should let up on the pressure, but let's not be so quick to throw Reid, and President Obama, when they manage to come up with half a loaf. Or even a quarter loaf.
And work to take back the House, keep the Senate, and hold on to the White House in 2012. That will really make Graham cry.