Democrat delusions for midterm dollars

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has sent embattled Democrat senators back to their states ahead of midterm election day. Before releasing them to their close campaigns, he required a show vote on a constitutional amendment that was merely the latest version of the cynicism and class warfare messages Reid has been driving from the Senate floor. Not satisfied with personally attacking the Koch brothers, two businessmen philanthropists whose politics he dislikes, Reid wants to change the constitution to help his team keep the Senate.

On Sept. 11, Reid held a vote on S.J. Res 19, a proposed amendment to the Constitution giving Congress the power to regulate how much money could be spent “to influence elections.”  It failed along party lines but not before revealing that Democrats’ desires to win extends even to an attempt to limit free speech where elections are concerned. It was merely the latest Senate action this year motivated purely by election politics rather than the people’s business.

{mosads}Private citizens the Koch brothers were still the targets, mentioned by name in connection with the vote by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The vote was Reid’s latest sally. “In a year during which little of consequence is being done in the Senate, hardly a week goes by in which Reid doesn’t take to the floor to attack [Charles and David] Kochs’ influence in politics,” reports Politico reporter Kenneth P. Vogel. By his count, Reid has mentioned the Kochs about 250 times by name or allusion.

Reid’s tally has ticked even higher since Vogel’s July count though his electoral strategy scarcely passes the laugh test. A movie script featuring the Senate leader of the majority party obsessively blaming two Americans for all the nation’s ills wouldn’t make it out of the slush pile. Incredibly, this has been the Democrats’ strategy for winning the midterm elections, despite the fact that more than half of Americans have no idea who the Kochs are.

According to Reid and his supporters, the Kochs are responsible for a list of evil ambitions that a comic book arch villain would envy. Among his most bizarre accusations are that the brothers support arson to burn down the West, are in favor of poverty, are trying to create a “Kochtopia,” want to keep kids from affording college, are cult leaders, and are trying to increase healthcare costs.

The attacks are not confined to the Senate floor or even to self-identified Democrats. Registered Independent Bernie Sanders (Vt.) dithered to MSNBC host Al Sharpton about the Kochs position on minimum wage. Left-leaning media like the New York Times editorial board cheers him on, complaining about money “being spent to evict [Democrats] from office and dismantle their policies” and praising Democrats for “starting to fight back” by targeting the Kochs.

In early September, the AFL-CIO chimed in by unveiling a campaign against the brothers. Union president Richard Trumka accused them of trying to “systematically destroy our democracy.” He’s either blind to the irony that about a third of Koch’s workforce is represented by unions or doesn’t care about how those members might feel about their money being used to attack their employers.

Reid’s attacks from the taxpayer-funded Senate floor are technically legal. “While Senator Reid is not violating rules, he’s abusing them,” one Senate expert said on condition of anonymity. “It’s an effort to single out people for intimidation. The leader of the Senate can say what he wants and not violate a rule but that shouldn’t be the test.”

Reid’s de facto suspension of the democratic rights of every other senator is also allowed. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), longest-serving member of that body, used to constantly remind colleagues that two great rights of every senator are the right to amend and to debate. Under Reid, the committee process is broken. Most legislation this session has been written in the Majority Leader’s office and brought to the floor with little committee input.

Forget the amendment process. Reid has used an arcane procedure to eliminate the possibility of any amendments being offered to bills on over eighty pieces of legislation in the past 15 months. He has shut down the amendment process more than the last five Majority Leaders combined. It is impossible for the Senate to function for the good of the country under these restrictions.

Reid’s Koch attacks serve to send a message to potential donors: stay out of it or receive the same treatment. He will continue to put the “bully” into his senatorial bully pulpit. His victims include the American people who must pay for a Senate that no longer functions.

Voter participation is at an all-time low. Americans don’t need more discouragement to engage in their own governance.

Hoppe was chief of staff to Senate majority leader Trent Lott and Senate Republican whip Jon Kyl.