Senator Harry Reid: The Man, The Moment, The Majority Leader Who Could Be
Historic

By Brent Budowsky
Created Nov 18 2006 - 10:02am

The United States Senate has always had an extraordinarily important role in
the conduct of foreign and national security policy, from true oversight and
Senate confirmation, to war powers and treaty ratification.

Senator Harry Reid will soon lead a Senate, and a Democratic Caucus in the
Senate, that is gifted with one of the strongest national security and
foreign policy line-ups of leaders in the history of the institution.

Having worked for significant Senators such as Birch Bayh, Max Baucus and
Lloyd Bentsen and then the House Democratic Leadership, I have dealt with
many of the players and now believe that Senator Harry Reid could become the
kind of historic public figure that some Senate Majority Leaders have risen
to, in the past.

First, the great challenge of American national security in 2006; then why
Senator Reid and the Democratic Senate will rise to the occasion. In recent
years the United States has been governed by the functional equivalent of a
one party State, and that one party state has been dominated by a
rejectionist and extreme faction that is far outside the tradition of
American national security strategy.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney have not only been influenced by,
but have been the leaders of, this extreme and radical rejectionism of the
core idea that has embodied American security for every President, of both
parties, since Franklin Roosevelt.

President Kennedy said it concisely: we should never negotiate out of fear,
but we should never fear to negotiate. Every President since FDR has
fundamentally followed the practice that both our military and our diplomacy
must be strong, effective and coordinated under the umbrella of a larger
strategic vision and unified democratic alliance.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney violated every cardinal rule of
this long time consensus. They have acted as though the United States would
only negotiate with our friends, never our enemies. They have been outright
hostile to the core value of diplomacy, either taking a pure rejectionist
position, simply refusing negotiations as a matter of principle, or engaging
in watered down fig leaf diplomacy that was either intended to fail, or was
doomed to fail.

The result of this Bush-Cheney rejectionism, and the dominance of the
rejectionist extreme of the Republican Party, has been disregard for advice
from our strongest allies, disunity of the democratic alliance itself,
structural decay and destabilization of our military force structure, the
erosion of our deterrent power, and the catastrophic alienation of public
opinion around the world.

This Bush-Cheney Doctrine, is a radical and extreme deviation not only from
the common practices of every President since FDR, but a radical and extreme
deviation from the common practices of every Repubican President since
Eisenhower.

Eisenhower warned about the dangers of a policy of one-dimensional
militarism in his famous "military-industrial complex" warning. Ike stood
second to none in supporting a strong military but understood it must always
be accompanied by an equally strong diplomacy.

Richard Nixon sought nuclear arms control with the Soviets and opened the
door to China. Gerald Ford continued arms control talks with the Soviets and
the China opening. Ronald Reagan understood the possiblility of historic
change with the arrival of Gorbachev, and with Gorbachev, achieved
monumental breakthroughs over the opposition of many in the rejectionist
rightist wing of the Republican Party.

President George Herbert Walker Bush worked with allies and adversaries to
steer the world through the end of the Cold War, then worked with senior
Democrats and our allies to build a powerful global coalition that prevailed
in the first Persian Gulf War, then directly avoided the catastrophic
mistakes of the current Iraq War.

It is no coincidence that the Bush-Cheney team planning the Iraq war
expressed a sneering contempt for President G.H.W. Bush's conduct of the
first Gulf War. In reality, they expressed a sneering contempt for the
panoramic premise of strategic policy agreed upon by every single President
since Franklin Roosevelt.

For the first in American history since Harry Truman, there is no American
leadership for a broader Middle East peace. For the first time since FDR
there is a functional failure to lead the democratic alliance. For the first
time since George Washington America suffers stunning defeats in the global
battle of ideas, creating ever-increasing dangers in the global battle
against terrorism. For first time since Dwight Eisenhower our military has
been destabilized by a one dimensional policy and pillaged by profiteering

My great hope for Senator Reid emerging as a historically important Majority
Leader, and for Democrats in Congress to contribute to great events and
become a majority governing party, is to offer alternatives that begin with
this:

There can be compromise with Republicans, but there cannot be compromise
with the radical rejectionist wing of the Republican Party that rejects in
principle a diplomacy that will mobilize our allies, and offer solutions to
those who are not our allies.

My great hope for Senator Reid emerging as a historically important Majority
Leader is that he begins where John F. Kennedy left off, a strong support
for our military, a strong support for creative diplomacy, and above all, a
full understanding that our success is based on a powerful stand in the
battle of ideas.

No policy will work, unless it offers hope and inspiration to young people
around the world, suffering from poverty, angry at social injustice, feeling
the humiliation, desperation, fulility and rage that is the breeding ground
for the suicide bomber.

The policy in Iraq has degenerated into a combination of Vietnam (quagmire
without simple resolution), Lebanon in the 1980's (militia death squads
ripping the heart from the spirit of the country), and early stage Bosnia
(slow motion ethnic cleansing) with the real and deadly danger that this
breakdown could engulf the wider circle of the Middle East.

My hope for Senator Reid becoming a historic Majority Leader would be for
Democrats to move beyond incremental challenges to catastrophically failed
policies, and offer bold new policies, based on the taditional paradigm of
post-World War II presidents, to offer allies and the world the true hope
for a better life and safer world.

Why not propose a 60 day cease fire in Iraq that would offer a halt fo the
carnage and the beginning of a policy of hope? Why not call for a 60 day
genuine reconciliation conference in Iraq with a brutally clear warning to
the government that forces aligned with their government must stop killing
their people?

Why not accompany this cease fire proposal with an allied and Gulf State
financed program that would begin with Iraq, and potentially be available to
the region, for dramatic financing of programs that would make life better
if and when reconciliation agreements are reached?

This approach would facilitate greater and faster training of Iraqi forces
and make more realistic the prospect for a workable exit strategy, but more
important it would offer Iraqis a genuine hope and better life.

Tactical changes such as force redeployments and phased withdrawls may be
desirable, but unless we offer the authentic hope of a better life, the
situation remains on automatic pilot to increasing chaos and greater death.

My great hope for Senator Reid becoming a historic Majority Leader is that
he has the talents and temperament that are perfectly suited for our times,
and an extraordinary Caucus of Senate Democrats that has a wealth of talent
and leadership figures.

Senator Reid is strong on political principle, clear about national
strategy, and very much in the tradition of great Senators with great
respect for the institution of the Senate. He the talent for working
respectfully to bring out the best in a diverse world of high quality
Senators.

The great untold story of 2006, which I believe will be clear by 2007, is
the exceptional number of truly outstanding Senators in the Democratic
Caucus. While the Washington wags say they all want to be President, in
truth, many of them are well qualified to be President, while others harbor
no presidential ambition but are greatly gifted in talent.

The Senate under Harry Reid will be a great incubator of ideas, with a
Caucus well above the cut of historical average. Senators such as Hillary
Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Evan Bayh, John Kerry, Barack Obama and
others are authentic potential presidents. Bill Nelson, Diane Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer are enormously talented and skilled and could join that list
if they choose to.

Carl Levin is a national security scholar and leader with tremendous stature
and respect on both sides of the aisle.

Senators such as Jay Rockefeller and Jack Reed are authentic national
security leaders and heavyweights. Jim Webb will be a major power on
national security on his first day in the Senate. Ted Kennedy is not only a
great progressive Lion of the Senate, but a Senate man with a long track
record of working with Republicans to get things done. Robert Byrd is a man
of unprecedented reverence for the Senate and a wise brand of statesmanship
and parliamentary genius.

Finally, Senator Reid comes from the school that maintains first principles
of policy but offers to work in good faith for genuine bipartisan
achievement when possible. There are some major Republican Senators of
substance and stature such as John Warner and Chuck Hagel who fully
appreciate how far Bush policies have strayed from tradtional consensus and
common sense, and could be occasoinal partners for Senator Reid and
Democrats on matters that serve the national interest.

It is very possible that the man, the moment and the Majority Leadership
come together in Senator Reid to restore the Senate to its historic role, to
restore a national security debate that returns to the historic consensus of
American Presidents, and that restores the Democratic Party to a party of
power and principle that will elect a Democratic President in 2008.

Senator Reid will be a great Majority Leader.

He has the potential to be a historic Majority Leader, in a historic United
State Senate.
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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson