Reid Slams Republicans, Sets Another Cloture Vote

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came out swinging against Senate Republicans’ obstruction of debate on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill. In a press release, he argues:

The American people also demand that their leaders discuss these details and improve on these ideas.  They have two simple requests: One, that their leaders look out for their economic security; and two, that their legislators legislate.  In other words, they want us to look out for their jobs and they want us to do our own.

Right now, Senate Republicans are refusing to do either. Yesterday they stood together, en bloc, to block us from moving this bill to the floor.  They didn’t even want the Senate to talk about legislation as part of the normal legislative process.

More than two years after the financial collapse that sparked a worldwide recession, Senate Republicans are claiming we’re moving too fast. They are claiming that only a fully negotiated and agreed-upon bill can come up for debate.  They want all the details to be worked out beforehand, behind closed doors and out of view from the public. That is unprecedented in the 220 years of the United States Senate.  As we all learned in civics class, that’s not how the legislative process works.

The letter does not mention Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who surprisingly sided with the Republicans last evening in refusing to vote to start formal debate on the bill. (Reid switched his final vote to no for procedural reasons.)

And Reid has called another cloture vote for 4:30 p.m. this evening. As of this morning, none of the likely crossover voters — such as Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) — have publicly indicated that they are willing to side with the Democrats or that their requests have been met.