Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is convinced his path to becoming majority leader lies in portraying Republicans as running a "do nothing" Congress. So last week he made sure his GOP colleagues couldn't do anything.
He and all but four other Democrats blocked Senate passage of a legislative package that would have raised the minimum wage, cut the death tax and extended popular tax breaks. A majority of the Senate was on record in favor of all three elements of the legislation, but Mr. Reid pressured enough Democrats to block GOP leaders from getting the 60 votes they needed to proceed to a vote.
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So far, all that Mr. Reid has shown is his ability to block legislation. His leadership team had to pull out all the stops to block the minimum wage-death tax package, even requesting that Senate Democrats report on which lobbyists were coming into their offices asking for support on the bill. Congressional Quarterly summarized Mr. Reid's approach as "using aggressive tactics to keep Democrats in line" and reported that lobbyists said "Reid had personally called business lobbyists urging them to stop working in support of the hybrid bill." Mr. Reid's office says he spoke with lobbyists only to set the record straight after he heard that Majority Leader Frist was calling them as well.
