Harry Reid Blocks Keystone XL Pipeline Push In Senate

by JASmius

Okay, from a purely partisan/utilitarian point of view I could understand this kind of crass obstructionism at one time - greenstremists like Tom "King Coal" Steyer are loaded, after all, and the Democrats have been riding high and ruling the country with an iron fist for over half a decade, which gave them a great deal of leeway in their pagan indulgences - but this has gotten silly:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's sharp rebuff of GOP demands for votes on amendments to an energy efficiency bill could doom consideration of the Keystone XL pipeline, The Hill reported Tuesday.

The Nevada Democrat said he wouldn't allow votes on any GOP-sponsored amendments later this week when the Senate considers a bipartisan energy bill sponsored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH,  and Rob Portman, R-OH.

The Hill reports Reid's balk probably scuttles a vote expected on the Keystone XL pipeline unless Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky caves on his demand for votes on GOP-sponsored amendments.

Republican senators have prepared a host of amendments to the energy bill, including one to authorize immediate construction of the Keystone pipeline, and another that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Did I say silly?  Try bordering on ridiculous.  Keystone XL has been kicked around for six years.  It's passed every environmental test on the planet with flying colors.  It's vastly safer than shipping petroleum in tankers.  It would bolster America's energy security and create tens of thousands of jobs at a minimum.  Republicans want it.  Independents want it.  Even some Democrats want it, most particularly the dozen endangered members of Harry (G)Reid's caucus who won't be around next year if he doesn't throw them some sort of bone as the midterms approach.  Doesn't matter.  He's sticking his fingers in his ears and croaking "Koch Brothers!" like a parakeet over and over at the top of his lungs while simultaneously holding his breath until he turns an even deeper shade of blue than he usually sports.

You know how Barack Obama accuses Republicans of continuing to oppose ObamaCare "out of spite"?  This is what spite looks like.  There's no art or skill in what Dirty Harry is doing.  He's not gaining a PR advantage over the GOP by continuing to block Keystone XL, or outmaneuvering them to blunt a PR advantage of our own.  Quite the opposite in fact.  He's just doing it to be a dick.  The part of his brain that still semi-functions knows his party is going down, hard, on November 4th, he's resigned himself to his Majority Leader run coming to a close, he's in effect given up, and has resolved to dig in his heels to the bitter end.

If pointlessly blocking Keystone XL wasn't proof enough of Senator Pencilneck's fatalistic muleheadedness, this ought to take the proverbial cake:

Also on Tuesday, Reid, an unapologetic "fan" of earmarks — the special projects lawmakers insert into legislation that are often referred to as pork — lamented their demise, and said President Obama is wrong to oppose them.

"I have been a fan of earmarks since I got here the first day," Reid declared, Roll Call reports. "I disagree — underline, underscored, big exclamation mark — with Obama. He's wrong."...

Reid insisted [earmark] problems can be fixed.

"...[I]f there needs to be more transparency than what we had, then fine, do it," he said.

"But it is wrong to have bureaucrats downtown make decisions in Nevada that I can make better than they can make. I don't run away at all. This is something that's been going on for centuries in our country. And it has worked quite well.”

Breathtaking, isn't it?  Remember in 2006 when this sleazebag stood with "Crazy Nancy" Pelosi, hands clasped over that weak heart of his, behind that podium with the sign plastered on the front that said, "Open, Honest Government!" and perpetrated the "Republican culture of corruption" meme and ranted about "draining the swamp," chief step amongst which was.....banning federal earmarks?  Well, I can understand if the memory has been buried under the several trillion earmarks in which Dirty Harry has been wallowing naked pretty much ever since then, but I recall that image and moment vividly.  I also vividly recall pointing out plaintively that the Democrat Party, while not having a monopoly on political corruption, did write the book on it and were past masters of it, and if Americans wanted to see an end to pork barrel spending, handing Congress to The Party Of The Earmark was going to produce the diametric opposite result.

I could say "See, I told you so!," but what would be the point now?  Besides, Senator (G)Reid has already done so quite nicely.

But that's not the punchline - and I swear on my Ryrie Study Bible that I'm not making this up:

Ironically, earlier in the day the Nevada Democrat and champion of pork lashed out at GOP colleagues, likening them to "greased pigs."

Words fail me.

Okay, he wasn't criticizing Republican earmarking, but his dementia problem clearly must have short-circuited his verbal editing ability to have let that gaffe burble out from between his gray lips.  Although his characterization of GOP resistance to his blunt obstructionism as porcine flight from "bipartisanship," and the Freudian slip of using a physical capture/restraint metaphor, is a darned good straight line runner-up.

Hopefully Senator McConnell can re-raise that bar next year.  It'll help pass the time while Barack Obama is delaying Keystone XL again because Bo ate all the environmental impact studies.