Is It Wise For The GOP To Push For Reid’s Resignation?

01/11/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Should Senator Harry Reid resign over comments he made regarding President Barak Obama’s dialect? Peter Beinart over at the Daily Beast made an interesting article on this. “Barack Obama because he’s ‘light-skinned’ and has ‘no Negro dialect.’ Reid’s use of the word ‘Negro’ was, to be sure, unpleasantly retro.” Of course there are dozens of other places where the reader can find arguments regarding Reid’s statements- for, against, and indifferent. what follows is not an analysis of anything to do with the accuracy, inaccuracy, reality or unreality of the comments made by Senator Reid, but rather about something completely different.

And now for that something completely different. Is there wisdom in the attack on Senator Reid? The Republicans have seized upon this comment to push the idea that there is some sort of double standard going on regarding Senator Reid’s comments and the reaction from the Democrats regarding it. They point to the ousting of Senator Trent Lott for comparison. There is some problems with this comparison. First of all, Trent Lott had a strong history of voting against rights for African-Americans, he voted against renewing the Voting Rights Act, and was opposed to the continuation of the Civil Rights Act. He also voted against having Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national holiday. At a birthday party for Senator Strom Thurmond, Lott stated “When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over the years, either.” Lott stated something similar at a 1980 rally. Lott was also facing problems from within the Republican Party at the time. He was in conflict with the Bush over much of the President’s policies. In many ways, Lott could have survived the controversy if it were not for the behind the scenes pushing by his own party to remove him.

For the Republicans, removing Harry Reid is actually a rather dumb move. Reid is an unpopular, ineffective Senate Majority leader that even many Democrats do not like. Reid has been loathe to push a Progressive agenda in the Senate, and has caved on a number of issues such as the Public Option in order to get Senators Ben Nelson and Joseph Lieberman behind the bill instead of threatening to pull their power and influence in the Senate. He has been reluctant to punish the Republicans for stalling legislation, and only just now been willing to bypass the Republicans in negotiating legislation such as the health care reform bill. If anything, many Progressives have been more than willing to see Reid leave due to a feeling that he is incompetent when it comes to ruling the Senate, and it is a perception which is causing a great deal of weariness and fear among the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party. The lack of enthusiasm in that wing could be the only way for the Republicans to make a come back in 2010 as the GOP is currently so lacking in money that it may not be able to effectively run a campaign for local rat catcher.

Should Reid resign his leadership position, his likely successor would be Chuck Schumer of New York. Schumer is far from being as willing to be bi-partisan as Reid is, and that would certainly whip up the base. Schumer is also more likely to push a Progressive agenda than Reid.

While the GOP has jumped on this scandal that most people really aren’t all that upset about, they risk dethroning their best asset in the Senate.