Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/30/14

Hollywood, Leave My Childhood Alone: A Guide to What You Can Maim

What Happens When The Facts Don’t Fit The Progressive Script?

Homofascists Turn Their "Gay" Guns On Mississippi

Moviegoers Flood 'Noah' With $44 Million

A Whole Lotta Democratic Corruption Going On

Politico's Dylan Byers: MSNBC in Freefall

How Unborn Babies Become 'Clinical Waste'

Hundreds of Children Abandoned by Illegals Heading into US

NYT Frets as GOP States Burden Blacks Based on 'Unfounded' Vote Fraud Fear

It Has Begun: Connecticut Raises Minimum Wage to $10.10

7 Ways Noah Turns the Bible Upside Down 

Harry Reid Will Refund Campaign For Gifts

Politiks As Usual: In The News 3/9/14

Most Corrupt Town in America in Danger of Being ‘Wiped Off the Map’

Is Ben Carson 2016's Sleeper Candidate?

I Was On Death Row, And I Was Innocent

Former 17 Year Marijuana Addict Urges Other States To Say No To Recreational Pot

No, Atheism and Conservatism Are Not Compatible 
 
Santorum: GOP Should Follow Pope's Example to Gain Followers
 
Obamacare Surcharge Appearing on Restaurant Bills Across the Country
 
George Will: Obama Donor Investigating IRS Scandal ‘Kind Of A Sham’ 
 
NBC Warns: Midterm Election 'Holds the Fate of the Rest of the Obama Presidency'
 
Ed Schultz Goes from Supporting Keystone to Comparing It to 'Vietnam' 

Chick-Fil-A Targeted By Black Mob

Iraqi Bill Would Allow 9-Year Old Girls to Marry, Husbands to Demand Sex

Can a Jew Get Down With Hot Jesus From 'Son of God?'

Koch Industries Responds To Harry Reid Attacks

Liberal Scumbag Harry Reid Calls All ObamaCare Victims 'Liars'

FOXNews.com:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is being hammered by Republican lawmakers after he claimed on the Senate floor that all the ObamaCare "horror stories" being circulated are untrue.

Reid tried to clarify his remarks late Wednesday by saying he was only referring to the “vast majority” of stories featured in ads funded by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group, and not the complaints of everyday Americans. However, he added fuel to the fire by continuing to slam the group’s backers, the Koch brothers, calling them “un-American.” 

Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips, in response, said Reid had effectively "attacked the character and integrity of every American who had the courage to share how they're being hurt by the president's health care law." 

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called Reid's original remarks "astounding and offensive." 

Reid said Wednesday morning on the Senate floor that he believes Americans for Prosperity hires actors in their ads to tell fake stories about canceled policies, higher premiums and ruined lives under ObamaCare.

“There’s plenty of horror stories being told,” Reid said. “All of them are untrue. But they’re being told all over America.” 

It was an apparent reference to, among other instances, an AFP ad that featured a woman with cancer who claimed her health care became unaffordable under the law. Her story was called into question by critics, but she and AFP are standing by the ad. 

The outcry over Reid's comments from Republican lawmakers was swift. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said he is demanding Reid apologize to those who have felt ill effects from ObamaCare.

“The majority leader, and any Democrat who agrees with him, owes an apology to all Americans who are suffering under this disastrous law and whose personal stories he has dismissed as ‘untrue,’” he said.

RELATED:  Cancer Patient Who Lost Insurance Due to Obamacare Demands Apology from Harry Reid

Don't Believe Liberal Media, Democrats To Blame For Shutdown

NYDailyNews.com:

The Obamacare/shutdown battle has spawned myriad myths. The most egregious concern the substance of the fight, the identity of the perpetrators and the origins of the current eruption.

(1) Substance

President Obama indignantly insists that GOP attempts to abolish or amend Obamacare are unseemly because it is “settled” law, having passed both houses of Congress, obtained his signature and passed muster with the Supreme Court.

Yes, settledness makes for a strong argument — except from a President whose administration has unilaterally changed Obamacare five times after its passage, including, most brazenly, a year-long suspension of the employer mandate.

Article 1 of the Constitution grants the legislative power entirely to Congress. Under what constitutional principle has Obama unilaterally amended the law? Yet when the House of Representatives undertakes a constitutionally correct, i.e., legislative, procedure for suspending the other mandate — the individual mandate — this is portrayed as some extra-constitutional sabotage of the rule of law. Why is tying that amendment to a generalized spending bill an outrage, while unilateral amendment by the executive (with a Valerie Jarrett blog item for spin) is perfectly fine?

(2) Perpetrators

The mainstream media have been fairly unanimous in blaming the government shutdown on the GOP. Accordingly, House Republicans presented three bills to restore funding to national parks, veterans and the District of Columbia government. Democrats voted down all three. (For procedural reasons, the measures required a two-thirds majority.)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won’t even consider these refunding measures. And the White House has promised a presidential veto.

The reason is obvious: to prolong the pain and thus add to the political advantage gained from a shutdown blamed on the GOP. They are confident the media will do a “GOP makes little Johnny weep at the closed gates of Yellowstone, film at 11” despite Republicans having just offered legislation to open them.

(3) Origins

The most ubiquitous conventional wisdom is that the ultimate cause of these troubles is out-of-control tea party anarchists.

But is this really where the causal chain ends?

From Social Security to civil rights to Medicaid to Medicare, never in the modern history of the country has major social legislation been enacted on a straight party-line vote. Yet Obamacare — which revolutionizes one-sixth of the economy, regulates every aspect of medical practice and intimately affects just about every citizen — passed without a single GOP vote.

The Democrats insist they welcomed contributing ideas from Republicans. Rubbish. Republicans proposed that insurance be purchasable across state lines. They got nothing. They sought serious tort reform. They got nothing. Why? Because, admitted Howard Dean, Democrats didn’t want to offend the trial lawyers.

Moreover, the administration was clearly warned. Republican Scott Brown ran in the most inhospitable of states, Massachusetts, on the explicit promise to cast the deciding vote blocking Obamacare. It was January 2010, the height of the debate. He won. Reid ignored this unmistakable message of popular opposition and conjured a parliamentary maneuver — reconciliation — to get around Brown.

Nothing illegal about that. Nothing illegal about ramming it through without a single opposition vote. Just totally contrary to the modern American tradition — and the constitutional decency — of undertaking major social revolutions only with bipartisan majorities. Having stuffed Obamacare down the throats of the GOP and the country, Democrats are now paying the price.

I thought the Republicans’ defunding demand impossible and, therefore, foolish. I thought that if, nonetheless, they insisted on making a stand, it should not be on shutting down the government, which voters oppose 5-to-1, but on the debt ceiling, which Americans favor 2-to-1 as a vehicle for restraining government.

Tactics are one thing, but substance is another. It’s the Democrats who have mocked the very notion of settled law. It’s the Democrats who voted down the reopening of substantial parts of the government. It’s the Democrats who gave life to a spontaneous, authentic, small-government opposition — aka the Tea Party — with their unilateral imposition of a transformational agenda during the brief interval when they held a monopoly of power.

That interval is over. The current unrest is the residue of that hubris.

RELATED: Where Ted Cruz Is Coming From

For Almost All in Congress, Government Shutdown Won’t Mean Losing Power in 2014

Mediaite.com:

Congress is less popular than car salesmen (the used variety). 

They are less popular than canals (the root variety). 

And less popular than colonoscopies (it’s assumed they’re referring to the prep portion). 

In the end, Congress’ approval rating currently stands at about 10 percent, according to a September 30th CNN poll. The government shutdown will drop that number even further. As a result, we keep hearing the same question asked on cable news this week: Why would a body so unpopular not try to do something, anything…to make themselves more likable? 

On the shutdown front, reports say there is no sense of urgency from either side of the aisle for a resolution.

Sure, the President just shortened a trip to Asia, but since declaring he isn’t willing to negotiate on anything, what’s the point in sticking around if meaningful dialogue (within these borders, anyway) is off the table? 

Back to the main point: So really, why would Congress risk sinking even further in the polls by allowing this shutdown to happen on its watch? 

Simple. 

There is no risk. 

Despite all the horrific poll numbers, did you know that 91 percent of members of the House get re-elected? The Senate is only slightly more of a ballgame, with 80 percent of its members getting another six years in power. In fact, in the past few election cycles, more incumbents have died in office than lost bids for reelection.

So when people ask why nothing changes inside the beltway, you now have your answer. Not unlike weathermen, they can be wrong more often than right and still get to keep their jobs. As noted in my last column that focused on the general public apathy around the shutdown, only 1/3 of Americans can name their member of Congress. 

Ah, but it’s better on the Senate side, right? Higher profiles and only two big names to remember for an entire state must be as easy to recall as the last two Super Bowl winners. 

OK, you saw this coming: Only 27 percent of the public can pass that test, according to a survey conducted by the New American Democracy last year. 

So while the public loathes Congress and the Senate, respectively, they aren’t particularly compelled enough–or inspired enough–or perhaps are too distracted–to actually do anything about it. 

As you know, branding is everything in this country: It’s what makes the Hillary Clinton machine so formidable (nearly 25 years in the national spotlight as First Lady, Senator, Presidential Candidate and Secretary of State). On the state and local level, it’s why an unknown has such a tough time knocking an incumbent out when trying to unseat him or her in the House or Senate. Very few folks vote in Congressional and Senate primaries (about 15 percent), making the wave of support needed to win almost impossible to form. 

Many in the media continue to ask how Congress can allow a shutdown to happen (and to a lesser extent, the President), who’s to blame, and most notably, who will pay the price at the polls come next year’s midterms. 

The answer to the last question—if history is any indication—is quite simple:

Hardly anyone. 

RELATED:  Shutdown crisis ignores the real problems

Senator Ted Cruz On Defunding Obamacare

 

RELATED: Ted Cruz Takes a Shot at Detractors, ‘Courage’ of Anonymous Congressional Staffers Trashing Him

Politiks As Usual: In The News 11/5/12

Matthews Unaware ‘Revenge’ Was Obama’s Line, Insists Romney Stoking Ethnic Fears With ‘Revenge’ Theme

Sandy Broke Records -- And Hearts

Why I Think Obama Will Win — In Detail

The Argument For School Choice

Commander in Chief Fails Military Voters, Again

Obama Campaigns with Celebs as Sandy Devastation Continues

Savannah Guthrie: Hurricane Sandy Sent 'Seemingly From Above' to Help Obama Get Re-elected

One Of Most Disgusting, Offensive Things I've Ever Seen, Courtesy Of Michael Moore

NAACP Takes Over Houston Polling Station, Advocates for President Obama

Former Hillary “Top Aide” Endorses Romney

Harry Reid Says Working with a President Romney is 'Laughable'  

Despicable Liar Harry Reid Moves The Goalposts, Now Claims Mitt Romney ‘Manipulated’ His Returns To Show He Paid Taxes

Mediaite.com:

In a statement released by Reid’s office, he accuses Romney’s accountants of manipulating the Republican presidential candidate’s returns:

The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people – and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements. That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated? We already know Romney has money in tax havens in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. What we don’t know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he’s made in his financial life. When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president? Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking. The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes.

“It’s also galling to see the creative accounting Mitt Romney applied to his own tax returns only days after learning of his insulting comments that seniors, soldiers and hard-working parents don’t pay enough taxes,” Reid said in the statement. “Once again, we see Mitt Romney is out of touch with middle class families, who don’t have the luxury of accounting wizards and foreign tax shelters. It’s obvious he believes in two sets of rules: one for him, and one for the middle class.”

Reid goes on to warns, “despite the fiscal cliff looming in just over three months,” Romney still refuses to release details of his returns. 

RELATED: Harry Reid calmly responds to Romney’s tax release: “He’s hiding something. He’s hiding something!”

Liberal Writer Richard Cohen: Harry Reid is Exactly What’s Wrong with Washington

WaPo.com:

In “The Godfather Part II,” a senator from Nevada is portrayed as corrupt. His name is Pat Geary. In real life, a senator from Nevada is a jerk. His name is Harry Reid.

Reid is where he loves to be: the center of controversy. He has accused Mitt Romney of paying no taxes for 10 years. Romney denies the accusation and challenged Reid to put up or shut up. In an apparent response, Reid repeated the charges on the Senate floor. Countless aides have echoed their boss. They and he attribute their information to a source they will not name.

Whether such a source exists, really, is beside the point. It could be that someone did indeed tell Reid that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years. Journalists get that sort of tip all the time, and their responsibility is (1) to check it out and (2) identify the source. Reid has not done the latter and apparently has not done the former, either. The truth is that Reid doesn’t really care if the charge is true or not. He would prefer the former, but he’ll settle for the latter.

 For Reid, this is yet another brazen and tasteless partisan attack. As majority leader, he has managed to sink the public image of the Senate even lower than it would otherwise be. He contributes to bad feelings, gridlock and the sense — nay, the reality — that everything is done for political advantage. Reid is a crass man, the very personification of the gaudy and kitschy Las Vegas Strip.

Still, he is not some backbencher, but the Senate majority leader. He is the face of the Democratic Party in the Senate and the ally of President Obama. Yet, not a single Democrat has had the spine to rebuke Reid. 

The White House has been given the chance and explicitly ducked its duty. Other members of the Senate have run for cover. They fear Reid and, if truth be told, sort of like what he’s doing — constantly needling Romney, keeping him on the defensive about taxes and his insistence on releasing only two years of his returns.

The politics of this squabble are delightful. But Reid has managed to draw both his party and his president into the gutter with him. When Reid accuses the Republicans of being overly partisan, he now lacks all credibility. For a long time it’s been difficult to believe anything he says. Now, it’s impossible.

As for Obama, he is tarnished by this episode. The fresh new face that promised us all a different kind of politics is suddenly looking cheesy. The soaring rhetoric that Obama used in his first campaign has come to ground in the mud of Harry Reid’s latter-day McCarthyism.

Channeled anger and staying on connecting Reid's smear to Obama (who hasn't shown any interest in denouncing Reid) is how conservatives and the Romney campaign should respond here. Yet, it still says a lot when a prominent liberal writer comes out and not only says he doesn't have Harry Reid's back, but that the Senate Majority leader is a lying prick as well.

RELATED: John Sununu: Barack Obama behind Harry Reid’s claim

Politiks As Usual: In The News 8/6/12

Sikh Temple Shooting To Be Probed As 'Domestic Terror'

Rice, Haley, McCain To Speak At GOP Convention

Polygamist Children Grow Up: Will They Have Polygamist Families Too?

Democrat Party Disavows Senate Nominee

175,000 Fewer Women Held Jobs in July; 94,000 Dropped Out of Labor Force

Priebus, Graham: Harry Reid 'Dirty Liar' for Romney Tax Smear; NYTimes On Reid

What Unemployment Rate Increase? Three Headline Writers Avoid Friday's Reported Uptick; AP Scrubs Original Rate Reference

Global Warming Debunked by Intelligent Design

How the Obama Campaign/Media Alliance Works

The Failed Policies That Got Us Into This Mess: By The Numbers

How Obama Grew to Dislike Romney

Pathological Liberal Senator Harry Reid Insults Mitt Romney By Bringing Up Dead Father

The lengths they'll go to distract American voters from the problems in this country that really matter sees no end:

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) turned heads this week by suggesting that Mitt Romney is withholding his tax returns because he didn’t pay taxes over a 10-year stretch.

In doing so, Reid burnished his reputation for lobbing occasional stinging insults — and seized on a Democratic attack line that seems to be resonating with voters.

Reid said Tuesday in an interview with the Huffington Post that he had learned of Romney’s tax history from “a person who had invested with Bain Capital.” But when pressed, he declined to identify the investor or cite any proof for his allegation.

Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson declined to share more information about the investor, saying in an e-mail that “I have no information beyond what he said. If Mitt Romney is upset with Senator Reid’s remarks, there’s a simple way for him to clear up the matter: release his tax returns.”

The Romney campaign did not respond to requests for comment; it has previously denied rumors that the Republican presidential challenger hasn’t paid taxes in any given year. Romney himself has said that releasing more than two years of his tax returns would only provide fodder for President Obama’s reelection campaign.

But recent polls suggest that voters expect presidential candidates to be more forthcoming about their taxes: Just over half of voters in the swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania think candidates should “publicly release several years of tax returns,” according to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University, the New York Times and CBS News. And a USA Today-Gallup poll published last month found that a majority of Americans — and almost a third of Republicans — think Romney should release more tax information.

RELATED: Calling BS on Reid's Bain tax claims

Politiks As Usual: In The News 1/16/12

Source: Jon Huntsman To Drop Out Of Presidential Race, Endorse Romney

Bain Film Organizer Stands By Claims Against Romney; Holmes Schools Shuster

Horrifying: Obama As Lame Duck

How Progressives Work

NBC Brings More Raunch to Primetime with Launch of 'Chelsea'

Obama on Pace to Borrow $6.2T in One Term—More Than All Presidents from Washington Through Clinton Combined

Haley Barbour: Pardons Represent A Belief In Redemption

Gregory Tells Reid 'Democrats Haven't Put Together A Budget In A Year' - It's Been Almost Three

The R-Word: Hollywood Throws It Around So Effortlessly

Rick Perry Defends Marines Accused of Urinating on Afghan Corpses

Politiks As Usual: In The News 2/28/11

Gadhafi Dismisses UN Sanctions, Vows Revenge

Bernard Madoff: Government Is A Ponzi Scheme

Herman Cain Wins Tea Party Presidential Live Straw Poll

House Republicans Approach Shutdown Showdown Week

President Obama Throws Marriage Under The Bus

Celebrities Should Stick To Their Song And Dance

Alveda King: 'The Most Dangerous Place For An African-American Is In The Womb!'

Tax Porn? Not An Effective Deterrent

Media Ignore Muslim Brotherhood Role In Fomenting Anti-Jew Hatred & Pro-Hitler Sentiment

Bozell Column: Not Wrestling Girls

Harry Reid Calls For An End To Legal Prostitution In Nevada

Why We're Getting Robbed At The Oscars This Year

Harry Reid, Senate Democrats Threaten to Block Obama Deal on Tax Cuts

Catering to the 20% who call themselves "liberals" and still hate George W. Bush, that's what they're doing:

Disappointed Democratic congressional leaders demanded changes in the White House's tax deal with Republicans on Tuesday despite a spirited argument by President Barack Obama that concessions were preferable to higher taxes for millions of Americans.

"I'm not here to play games with the American people or the health of the economy," Obama said of his day-old deal, which is designed to avert a scheduled Jan. 1 expiration of tax cuts at all income levels.

In a remarkable political role reversal, Republicans lined up to support the package, while lawmakers of the president's party said they were prepared to oppose it. Liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., pledged to "do everything I can to defeat this," including a filibuster to prevent a final vote.

The deal includes an extension of expiring Bush-era tax cuts for all income levels — not just for lower and middle-income taxpayers, as Democrats wanted. It also contains a renewal of jobless benefits due to expire in a few weeks, and a one-year cut in Social Security taxes paid by workers.

Other elements would loosen the estate tax and provide breaks for businesses to spur hiring. Officials said that overall, the proposal could add $900 billion to the federal deficit over two years.

Democratic opposition focused chiefly on two parts of the deal that marked concessions to Republicans — the decision to let expiring tax cuts remain in effect for people in upper incomes, and a change in the estate tax that the GOP has long sought.

Pelosi called the estate tax provision "a bridge too far," and Reid also singled it out for criticism. It would allow $5 million per spouse to pass tax-free to heirs, and tax anything above that level at 35 percent.

The compromise is "something that's not done yet," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "We're going to have to do some more work," he said after a closed door meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and members of the Democratic rank-and-file.

Across the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement that said, "We will continue discussions with the president and our caucus in the days ahead."

At his hastily called news conference, Obama bristled at times, casting himself in the role of compromiser-in-chief with the best interests of the economy and public in mind.

"This isn't an abstract debate. This is real money, It will make a real difference in the lives of people who sent us here," Obama said.

How Sharron Angle Screwed Herself

CNN.com:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid basked in his re-election Wednesday after Nevada voters helped him turn back a challenge from a Tea Party-backed Republican he painted as too extreme for the state.


The veteran Democrat won his fifth term with strong support from self-described moderates and voters who considered former state lawmaker Sharron Angle too conservative, according to exit polling. With 99 percent of precincts counted, Reid led Angle 50 percent to 45 percent after a race that polls had indicated was neck-and-neck until the end.

"For me, this is not eking out a race," Reid told CNN's "American Morning" on Wednesday. "I've had some close ones. This wasn't close."

It's the only way to excuse her loss to an idiot like Harry Reid in a state where unemployment hovers around 15%. I don't think it was the "racist" ad she released against illegal immigration the other day so much as she should've talked to the media more (esp. FOX and even CNN), her debate performance against Reid last month was pretty wack (although conservatives hailed it, to me she came across as bumbling, timid and inarticulate) and telling Hispanic students that they "might look Asian" was just ass-backwards. I don't think Harry Reid won so much as Sharron Angle lost and yes, in a way Joy Behar does get the last laugh.

Harry Reid Using Free Food And Gift Cards To Steal Votes

The depths they'll go to stay in power:

So says Cleta Mitchell, the same woman who tried to get Scott Ashjian, the Tea Party of Nevada candidate out of the race, in an astonishing fundraising letter:

As Sharron Angle's campaign attorney, I am sorry to report that the Democrats and their cronies are up to their same old tricks, of trying to manipulate the election in hopes of skewing the results in their favor.

Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided "free food" at "voter turnout events." Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers' unions are offering gift cards in return for a vote for Reid.

Before we were even able to document the reported infractions to report to the authorities, the Democrat Secretary of State slammed the door shut on preventing this behavior and issued a public statement permitting these ACORN-style tactics. THESE are the kinds of shenanigans that can turn this race.

Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can't win it outright. As a result, we need to deploy literally dozens of election law attorneys and poll watchers to combat these tactics at a cost of nearly $80,000. That's over and above our current budget. We need to raise $80,000 and we need to do it RIGHT NOW, because even as I am writing this, Harry Reid and his Machine are trying to steal this election. I'm sorry that we have to come to you yet again and ask for you to reach deep and contribute, but we must.

Harry Reid Compares Obama To Rescued Chilean Miners

MSNBC.com:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has compared President Barack Obama to a trapped Chilean miner. 

In a speech to supporters in Las Vegas on Sunday night, Reid said that when Obama replaced George W. Bush in the White House he found himself in a "hole so deep that he couldn't see the outside world.

"It was like the Chilean miners, but he, being the man he is, rolled up his sleeves and said 'I am going to get us out of this hole,'" Reid said at an "Early Vote GOTV" event.

The man's stupidity holds no bounds.

Sharron Angle Surging, Harry Reid's Hopes 'Fading Away'

It's the one spot the GOP must win come November:

A new Rasmussen Reports poll showing GOP challenger Sharron Angle surging ahead of No. 1 Senate Democrat Harry Reid has prompted one Democratic pundit to declare: "This race is fading away from Harry Reid."

Rasmussen Reports published a poll Thursday of likely Nevada voters showing Angle has opened up a four-point lead over Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, 50 percent to 46 percent. It was the widest polling gap between the two candidates since June, although still just within the survey's margin of error. 

Just one week ago, a previous Rasmussen poll showed Reid leading Angle 48 percent to 47 percent.

"This race is fading away from Harry Reid," Fox News commentator and Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen tells Newsmax.

He added that "Reid is sinking and the seat is in increasing jeopardy."

Bid To Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Fails In Senate

Yahoo.com:

Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation that would have repealed the law banning gays from serving openly in the military. The partisan vote was a defeat for Senate Democrats and gay rights advocates, who saw the bill as their last chance before November's elections to overturn the law known as "don't ask, don't tell."


With the 56-43 vote, Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. It also would have authorized $726 billion in defense spending including a pay raise for troops.


Senate Democrats attached the repeal provision to the defense bill in the hopes that Republicans would hesitate to vote against legislation that included popular defense programs. But GOP legislators opposed the bill anyway, thwarting a key part of the Democrats' legislative agenda.

Good. Harry Reid, in the sole interests of his Leftist base and that mess of a woman Lady Gaga, used bully tactics in order to try and get this thing through. And yet, the military doesn't need to be used for social experiments anyway.

Harry Reid Calls Chris Coons His "Pet"

This should help....Christine O'Donnell:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday predicted to The Hill that Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons will safely win the Nov. 2 general election against GOP nominee Christine O'Donnell.

Reid talked up the New Castle County executive following a memorial ceremony on the Capitol's east steps to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. O'Donnell on Tuesday night won the GOP nomination to face Coons in November — a result that has split the national Republican Party.

But Reid said Coons would have won even if Rep. Mike Castle (R) had prevailed over O'Donnell.

"I'm going to be very honest with you — Chris Coons, everybody knows him in the Democratic caucus. He's my pet. He's my favorite candidate," Reid said.

"Let me tell you about him: A graduate of Yale Divinity School. Yale Law School. A two-time national debate champion. He represents two-thirds of the state now, in an elected capacity. I don't know if you've ever seen him or heard him speak, but he is a dynamic speaker. I don't mean loud or long; he's a communicator. So that's how I feel about Delaware. I've always thought Chris Coons is going to win. I told him that and I tried to get him to run. I'm glad he's running. I just think the world of him. He's my pet."

Creepy.