As campaign gathers pace, Senate bills sink

It’s not easy being the Senate majority leader. Especially now.

Three months before his election, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is finding his tactics on energy refom questioned by liberals as GOP operatives strategize how to defeat him this fall.

Campaign season is in full swing on Capitol Hill, playing a major role in stalling many high-profile bills.

Republicans handed Reid his second legislative defeat of the week Thursday when they blocked what had been considered a bipartisan small-business bill.

Lawmakers negotiated into the evening to keep the measure moving, but there was no deal as of press time.

The GOP voted as a bloc Tuesday to kill the Disclose Act, a priority of liberal activists. That measure would have required corporations and unions to report on their political activity, a proposal that had long enjoyed bipartisan support until this year.

The aura of campaign-trail politics was underscored by the presence of senior White House political adviser David Axelrod and Democratic consultant Paul Begala at a lunch with Senate Democrats on Thursday.

In this charged atmosphere, Reid has had to juggle bills ranging from food safety to child nutrition to the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan.  

He has also had to face down criticism from within his own ranks for not bringing to the floor legislation that would cap carbon emissions.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), an emerging leader among the Democrats, said Wednesday that party leaders and President Obama should have fought harder for climate change legislation.

“I want to take a moment to express my sorrow and dismay that we appear to have walked away from doing anything serious about our energy posture and the hazard that carbon pollution is creating in our climate,” he said during an impassioned floor speech.

Whitehouse acknowledged that not a single Republican was willing to support a climate change bill but said Democrats should have waged a fight nevertheless.

“I just want to say that I think we should have had the fight anyway, I think it’s an important fight to have,” he said, adding that when the effects of global warming begin to ravage the planet “and they look back and say, ‘Why did you do nothing?’ it will be hard to have an answer.”

Whitehouse said Democrats could have won the climate fight if Obama had pressed harder, if environmental groups had marshaled all their resources and if green-technology businesses had rallied to the cause.

The first-term lawmaker softened his criticism of Senate leaders by describing Reid’s handling of the bill as pragmatic and said there’s still time to debate climate change legislation this year.

Reid, who faces GOP nominee Sharron Angle in the general election, downplayed the critique.

“Everyone has an opinion as to how to make the bill better,” Reid told The Hill.

Axelrod disputed that the president had acted tentatively on climate change.

“We’re going to keep pushing forward to get a good, sensible energy bill, and sooner or later we will,” Axelrod said. “I don’t think the president held back. [He has] made clear again and again his commitment on this.”

Reid, who previously compared climate change to a “headache,” skillfully handled the public-relations game of essentially killing the bill this Congress. He announced his position of delaying action with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Carol Browner, energy director at the White House office on climate policy. Both Kerry and Browner have been driving forces on moving a climate measure through Congress.

Reid was also careful to say a global warming bill could re-emerge in September, but that is highly unlikely. His management of the politically sensitive topic earned him praise from some Democrats.

“Here’s the problem: Every fight leaves scar tissue, and the buildup of scar tissue makes the next fight that much more difficult,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

 She said the ambitious efforts to overhaul the nation’s health system and reform Wall Street have exhausted the chamber.

“The fight without winning just sets things back even more,” she said. “We will fight when we have a chance to win.”

As the prospects for passing legislation have declined amid increasing partisan rhetoric, Democratic senators have spent more time discussing political strategy for the fall.

 They discussed with Axelrod and Begala how to hone their political message.

 Axelrod tried to reassure Democrats concerned about Congress’s low approval rating.

 He reminded them the election will not be a referendum on Congress but a choice between Democratic and Republican candidates.

 Axelrod told lawmakers there are number of issues that Democrats can use to illustrate contrasts, according to a person who attended the meeting.

 Axelrod urged Democrats to portray Republicans as defenders of large special interests and Democrats as being on the side of middle-class families.  

Democratic strategists believe their argument will be helped if Republicans vote against small-business and energy legislation.

In the meantime, partisan bickering over stalled legislation remains the norm on Capitol Hill.

“This is all about posturing, because Sen. Reid knows if you introduce a piece of legislation and say take it or leave it, there’s no opportunity to offer amendments, the reaction is going to be, ‘No, we’re not going to do it that way,’ ” said Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), chairman of the Senate Republican campaign committee, explaining why the small-business bill failed.

 Reid said the claim that Senate Republicans are blocking the legislation to win fair consideration for their amendments is bogus.

“This is the proverbial stall that we have had all year, an effort to say no to everything we do,” he said.

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