Harry Reid Goes All-In for Rule by Executive Order, as Long as a Democrat Does It
Former Sen. Harry Reid has done some pretty horrible things
I remember how he was proud of lying about Mitt Romney’s taxes during the 2012 election. Namely, Reid had claimed Romney hadn’t paid them for 10 years even though he had.
When asked by CNN whether his methods were redolent of McCarthyism, Reid replied: “They can call it whatever they want. Romney didn’t win did he?”
Retirement hasn’t exactly given Reid perspective. The former Senate majority leader — whose shift to Senate minority leader in 2015 had more than a little to do, I suspect, with his leadership capacity in the upper chamber — is still doing some low-key campaigning for the Democrats, like on a conference call with reporters about climate change on Wednesday.
The subject of executive orders came up. Those were popular things in the Obama years when the president was all about his “pen and phone.” They’ve remained popular during the Trump administration, partially because that which can be done with the pen and phone can also be undone with the pen and phone, and partially because the golden rule of politics is “Do unto others as they do unto you.”
From the conference call, we can tell Reid remains a fan of the executive order — provided there’s a Democrat in the White House. That’s not me reading between the lines and drawing a conclusion from what he said, mind you. That’s literally what he said.
“We need a Democratic president for a number of reasons,” Reid said during the call, according to the Washington Examiner.
“We’ve learned over the last few years from trying to govern the country by executive order that there’s a lot that can be done legally with executive order,” Reid said. “Only the Democratic president can get that done.”
The Examiner noted that President Trump has made “unilateral moves on immigration, climate, deregulation generally, and other issues.” You know, completely unlike Barack Obama did.
Reid says he would prefer matters to be handled legislatively.
“With a Democratic president, Democratic Senate, and with Nancy Pelosi, the great leader she is, I look forward to wonderful things happening,” he said.
The idea that Democratic executive orders are somehow more legal than Republican executive orders is an interesting one indeed.
You’re probably familiar with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. That’s one of Obama’s unilateral initiatives on immigration — initiated by executive order, of course — in which children who arrived illegally in the United States between certain ages were allowed to stay.
You’re probably less familiar with Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA. That was a similar program that allowed the illegal immigrant parents of children who were citizens or in the country legally to stay.
Lower courts struck the program down and a 4-4 Supreme Court deadlock in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death meant the program was deemed unconstitutional. Given the legal similarity to DACA and the fact that deadlock no longer exists and Merrick Garland isn’t the one delivering the vote to break the deadlock, one may indeed come to certain conclusions.
Furthermore, I’m curious how the next president, were he or she to be a Democrat, would somehow be a better legal steward of the executive order or use it less.
Let’s take Sen. Kamala Harris, who has said that she would give Congress 100 days to give her exactly what she wants on gun control or she’ll enact it herself via executive order.
Beyond the legislative blackmail aspect, this seems highly unlikely to pass judicial review, given the usurpation of Congress’ role to enact legislation and the fact that it deals directly with a constitutional amendment.
Is this part of “a lot that can be done legally with executive order”? Is this what Harry Reid is advocating?
It’s a rare day that I can say Chuck Schumer is preferable to anything, but as the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, he’s a jolly sight better than Reid, whose political morals are so situational they don’t exist beyond the exigencies of the moment.
Then again, you imagine that whoever the Democrats would put in the White House would likely be cut from exactly that cloth. The executive order would be back with such a vengeance that you might as well replace the arrows and olive branch being clutched by the eagle on the presidential seal with a fountain pen and an iPhone.
Behold Harry Reid’s Democratic Party. Is this what you want to return to, America?
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