One of the biggest signs of the intellectual and moral decay of the Democratic Party is that no one in Nevada has stepped forward to challenge Harry Reid in the primary. Reid is a racist, misogynistic, heterosexist Mormon extremist who has failed to govern as a Democrat in any meaningful way.

Let's look at healthcare. Reid continues to lie and say that he needs 60 votes to pass healthcare as an excuse to try to block a strong public option. He hopes that Democrats won't know that he can easily pass it through budget reconciliation. Yes, the Goppers will whine, but they will attack, attack, attack everything the Democrats do anyway. It would be smarter politics to help boost 2010 turnout among understandably disillusioned Democrats and Democratic leaning independents by actually getting something done than worrying about the tantrums of Republicans. But, Reid is bought and paid for by the HMOs, so he doesn't care.

More on Budget Reconciliation from Think Progress:

...Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who said any use of budget reconciliation by President Obama would be “regarded as an act of violence” against Republicans, and likened it to “running over the minority, putting them in cement and throwing them in the Chicago River.” Other GOP senators have chimed in against reconciliation, with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) calling it a “purely partisan exercise” and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) saying it “would be a mess.”

Despite their howls against Obama, Republicans employed the same procedure to pass major Bush agenda items (which were supported by all four aforementioned Senators):

– The 2001 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 1836, 3/26/01]
– The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts [HR 2, 3/23/03]
– Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 [HR 4297, 5/11/06]
– The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [H. Con Res. 95, 12/21/05]

As ThinkProgress has noted, Gregg defended using the reconciliation procedure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for domestic drilling in 2005, arguing, “The president asked for it, and we’re trying to do what the president asked for.” Evidently, Gregg has lost the same sense of patriotic duty.

Reid has been acting like a Bush Republican for some time now. In the last Congress, Reid blocked efforts to defund the Iraq War, and he still won't support cutting funds off now. Reid even supported the efforts of Hillary Clinton, Joseph Lieberbush,and Dick Cheney to get us into a war with Iran. While Bush was in office, Reid offered only token opposition to any of Bush's initiatives.

Returning to this Congress, Reid, an anti choice misogynist, has refused to push for any legislation to curb the terrorist activities of his fellow abortion opponents. He's done nothing to crack down on the banksters. The antitrust division of the Justice Department is still horribly understaffed, which is just how Reid would like to keep it. ENDA and legislation to lift the military ban are going nowhere. Reid has done nothing to block the Hate Based initiatives that were started under Bush and have been expanded under Obama.

The least the Democrats could do would be to remove this de facto Republican as Senate Majority leader. His sniveling and dishonest behavior puts a terrible public face on the Democratic Party in the Senate. Yet, no public calls have been made by Democratic Senators to remove him from this position.

The fact that Reid is Senate Majority Leader and the fact that he has yet to face a primary challenger show how weak, corrupt, and spineless the Democratic Party has become.

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