Harry Reid, Champion of Hypocrisy

Glenn Cook in Harry Reid's hometown Las Vegas newspaper is pointing out the astonishing hypocrite that is the Senate Majority Leader:

If Harry Reid decides to use the Senate's "reconciliation" process to ram health care legislation through his chamber and crush a filibuster, then he'll have to reconcile something else: his astounding hypocrisy.

The majority leader from Nevada is working behind closed doors to merge health care bills passed by the Senate's health and finance committees. He desperately wants to come up with something that can get 60 votes -- the number needed to halt any attempt by minority Republicans to block a final vote on the massive expansion of federal authority.

Although Reid has 60 votes in his caucus, it might be an impossible task. Moderate Democrats oppose a "public option" that allows the government to sell health insurance and undercut private-sector providers, and far-left Democrats are insisting that any bill include the first step toward nationalized health care.

So Reid has let it be known that wrangling over the public option might compel him to go with the "nuclear option": ending a filibuster without 60 votes.

To do that, Reid would have to use a parliamentary maneuver called "budget reconciliation." Votes on the federal budget are exempt from filibusters. If he takes this route, Reid would have to pretend the legislation is a simple matter of fiscal housekeeping -- a routine issue that needs just 51 votes to pass.

Given the complexity and controversy surrounding new health insurance mandates and regulations, such an end-around would be unprecedented.

It also would represent one of the greatest flip-flops in recent memory. Just 41/2 years ago, when he was Senate minority leader, Reid was the undisputed champion of the filibuster, using it time and again to block President George W. Bush's judicial nominees and the GOP agenda.

Reid went to his obstructionist playbook so frequently that Republican leadership hatched a plan to abolish the filibuster in the judicial confirmation process.

The senator used the occasion to channel the founders and articulate some of the most principled, measured rhetoric of his political career.

"It encourages moderation and consensus," Reid said in a 2005 floor speech in defense of the filibuster. "It gives voice to the minority, so that cooler heads may prevail.

"It also separates us from the House of Representatives -- where the majority rules. And it is very much in keeping with the spirit of the government established by the framers of our Constitution: limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances. ..."

"The filibuster is a critical tool in keeping the majority in check," Reid continued. "This central fact has been acknowledged and even praised by senators from both parties. ..."

"The right to extended debate is never more important than when one party controls Congress and the White House. ..."

"Some in this Chamber want to throw out 217 years of Senate history in the quest for absolute power. They want to do away with Mr. Smith coming to Washington. They want to do away with the filibuster. They think they are wiser than our Founding Fathers. I doubt that's true."

Reid said then that preserving the filibuster was the "most important issue I've dealt with in my 40 years of public service."

If Harry gets away with this there better be blood (rhetorically, at least) on the floor of the Senate. The GOP should shut the place down and stop everything that comes up, from judicial nominees to any and every bill.