Could Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s tough tactics on financial reform backfire? Centrist Senate Republicans say that Reid’s repeated calls for cloture votes — two votes in the last two days; two more scheduled today and tomorrow — are counterproductive.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), who voted with Democrats in committee on derivatives language, said the tactic “sours” the mood of the Senate.
“The reason it sours it is because [the Democrats] keep wanting bipartisanship, but they’re always defining bipartisanship as one Republican and 59 Democrats; that’s not bipartisanship,” Grassley said.
Even perpetual bipartisan dance-partners Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (R., Maine) have expressed disapproval of Reid’s tactics. Collins said the votes “turn this into a divisive partisan issue” and pre-empt “negotiations on very complex, technical issues … that are proceeding well.”
But even though the vote-a-thon has annoyed the very centrists Reid needs to peel off to claim victory, that won’t last forever. Sen. George Voinovich (R., Ohio), not a stranger to bucking his party, has apparently said that he will eventually vote to start debate — even if bipartisan negotiations fail.