Bill Clinton Thanks Harry Reid for 'Magic' on Filibuster Deal

     As I've said, I'm a big Harry Reid fan. 

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/07/never-have-i-been-prouder-of-harry-reid.html

      So while I will praise the Senate Majority Leader up and down all day and all night, I'll also, of course, quote others praising him. Let me stop praising Harry Reid so that someone else can praise him. 

      "Former President Bill Clinton thanked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday for working “his magic” on the recent deal to avoid the “nuclear option” on Senate filibuster rules."

     “The best problem solving requires cooperation,” Clinton said. “And so here we are. Senator Reid finally found a cooperator in the last 48 hours and worked his magic again. Thank you very much.”

     Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/bill-clinton-harry-reid-senate-nuclear-option-94346.html#ixzz2ZLl4cVvb

      This speech of Clinton's was actually being given at the EPA which is now renaming their building in his honor. Which is also cool. I am also a big fan of Clinton. So I like Clinton praising Reid, and the EPA renaming their building after Clinton. Though I'd think that Al Gore might be demanding a recount. After all who's been a bigger environmental advocate than him?

      http://www.amazon.com/The-Future-ebook/dp/B009MYD9EE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374105179&sr=1-1&keywords=al+gore

      http://www.amazon.com/Our-Choice-Solve-Climate-Crisis/dp/1594867348/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374105222&sr=1-4&keywords=al+gore

      http://www.amazon.com/Al-Gore/e/B000AP8Y7G/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1374105244&sr=1-2-ent

       Ok, so we've had some fun patting Democrats on the back-though I can always do some more. What about the future-what might yesterday's deal auger here? I think there's no question that it has changed things. It has greatly weakened the ability-if not wholly erased-of the GOP to use the filibuster executive nominees in the future. 

        http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2013/07/today-is-apparently-not-good-day-to-die.html

        It was also a terrible day for McConnell who played no part in the agreement and actually voted against cloture for Richard Cordray, yet it still got 71 votes. This begs the question as to whether he may be facing something of a mutiny. There is a group of GOP Senators who've had enough of the ultra aggressive obstruction on even the most routine matters. 

        McCain has clearly had enough and has admitted that  there is some merit to the Democrat frustration. 

        "In particular, the fact that John McCain and other Republicans seemed impatient with the overall oppositional posture driving GOP filibustering — and their use of obstructionist tactics explicitly to render government dysfunctional for political and ideological reasons — has caught Democrats’ attention. For instance, check out what Lindsey Graham had to say about GOP opposition to Richard Cordray, Obama’s pick to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

“Cordray was being filibustered because we don’t like the law” that created the consumer agency, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. “That’s not a reason to deny someone their appointment. We were wrong.”

     "The fact that Republicans were opposing Cordray out of ideological hostility to the agency itself, and not because of the nominee, was a key distinction Dems tried to draw as justification for threatening to change the rules by simple majority. Here is a GOP Senator on record confirming the Dem argument."

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/07/17/the-morning-plum-a-thaw-in-gop-resistance-to-basic-governing/

      A hope is that the Dems may be able to exacerbate a wedge between military hawks like Graham and McCain vs. the fiscal hawks to get something done about replacing the filibuster. 

      In the House however, it's business as usual as the GOP voted to end the individual mandate for Obamacare for the 38th time. 

      http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/07/gopers-change-subject-from-nuclear.html

      P.S. No doubt Clinton and Reid form something of a mutual admiration society, with Reid recently invoking the idea of a Hillary Clinton or even Chelsea Clinton Presidency in the future. I'll take both.