Harry Reid: Douche Enabler

Harry Reid, talking about the Douche Caucus:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that liberal groups targeting moderate Democrats with ads should back off, saying pressure from the left wing of his party won't be helpful to enacting legislation.

"I think it's very unwise and not helpful," Reid said Friday morning. "These groups should leave them alone. It’s not helpful to me. It’s not helpful to the Democratic Caucus.”

So an obstructionist caucus is good for the Democratic agenda? Why? Because Harry Reid says so, that's why. Then he inadvertently reveals something really impressive about the group:

Reid has no qualms about the group, and said that “any public statements” Senate moderates have made have been helpful as the chamber takes up a budget next week that would cost more than $3 trillion. And he added: “Some people of course go to those meetings so they can issue a press release back home that'll make them appear more moderate.”

This is Harry Reid speaking about the members of his own caucus, saying that they're making coldly calculated political decisions rather than actually working to make the legislation closer to their values. Regardless of how horrific that sounds politically, I want to make sure I understand this correctly:

The caucus formed with the purpose of supposedly having no policy ideas or principles includes members who are such phenomenal douches that they're not even committed to obstructing Obama's agenda? They're doing this for the "political benefits" of looking like douchebags? Only in politics would people be stupid enough to buy into to that logic.

And then there's the whole idea of "looking moderate" as a political benefit. When adding or subtracting parts to the budget, this group has the goal of making it less progressive, and more conservative. These Senators do not operate at some magical nonexistent point between liberal and conservative. They are obstructing the agenda that Obama campaigned for and that the majority of the country voted for. They are aligning themselves with conservatives in order to weaken his goals and further conservatives ones. There is nothing"moderate" or "pragmatic" about any of that.

And yet Harry Reid says that criticizing those who are obstructing the Democratic agenda is somehow "not helpful to the Democratic caucus".

You really can't make this shit up.