Is Obama tough enough?

“He’s not confrontational enough!” says Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

That’s right. Soon after President Obama left Las Vegas, after having raised beaucoup bucks for his reelection campaign, the Senate majority leader threw Obama under the bus, complaining he wasn’t tough enough in dealing with Republicans.

Now, that may have been impolitic for Harry Reid to say, but … he’s right.
Obama has been much, much too nice to Republicans. He’s spent too much time,
made too many compromises and tried too hard to win their cooperation — which
he’s never going to get. Obama needs to channel more LBJ and less Gandhi.

But there are two problems with Reid’s criticism.

First, why’d he wait so long to say it? The time to push President Obama to be
more confrontational with Senate Republicans was during last year’s debate on
healthcare reform, not now. Had he done so, we might have the public plan
option, which Obama began by calling an essential element of any legislation.

Second, Reid’s the last one to make this charge. Because if Barack Obama’s too
nice, so’s Harry Reid. He’s the Mr. Nice Guy of the Senate, and we all know
what happens to nice guys in politics. Had the majority leader himself shown a
little more backbone, we’d not only have a much stronger healthcare reform
bill, Republicans would no longer have the filibuster to hide behind.

Still, it’s never too late. So here’s one way for Reid to show how tough he
really is. Let him lay down the rule: There will be NO AUGUST RECESS — senators
will be stuck in this summer hellhole called Washington, D.C. — until the
Senate passes a bill extending unemployment benefits for American workers
who’ve lost their jobs. Keep senators here in Washington and turn off the
air-conditioning — until they deliver.

That’s the only way to get some action on unemployment benefits. The only
question is: Is Harry Reid tough enough to do it?

Visit Mr. Press’s website at billpressshow.com.