Harry Reid has finally decided to do something about Mitch McConnell's blocking of executive branch nominees. If you were watching C-Span yesterday, you got to see McConnell have a tantrum over -- are you ready? -- the fact that Reid called the meeting for Monday, at 6 p.m.
The Minority Leader of the Senate was upset because his members would have to show up early for their work week. This despite the fact that Reid could have called the meeting for Monday at 9 a.m., which is when the normal work-week starts for lots of us who are not members of Congress.
He then followed up that impressive argument by calling Harry Reid a "liar" and Obama's recess nominees "illegal." To which Reid defended himself by saying, "Am not." Not his finest moment, granted, but this is Harry Reid, and you have to be proud of him for just taking a stand, right?
The behavior of our republican officials prove the point that bullies are cowards and whiners. Their government jobs, big salaries and short hours, great health care and paid vacation and sick leave, and quite enviable retirement benefits, including the ability to use their contacts and influence for life, only make the whining more incessant.
The 2012 election season, with its highlight the Republican National Convention, was a showcase for bullies. These are the people who steal your lunch money and then when a friend gives you half their sandwich, knock it out of your hand and call you a crybaby.
Which is what they are also demonstrating in the battle over the Farm Bill. In essence, they are stealing our tax dollars for their buddies (and themselves) in Big Agra, while knocking the food stamp dollars out of the hands of the poor. And whining the whole time.
We should be better than this. And I'm talking about those who vote these characters into office. Those who bullied their way into the health care town halls of a few years ago, even shouting down a woman in a wheelchair. The ones who would have us spend our tax dollars to build a fence and pay for yet more border patrol but gripe about public school dollars.
Who are these people? We know them. They are misinformed and afraid they are going to lose whatever they have. They put their trust in the bullies, because the bullies yell the loudest, and point the finger away from them. The bullies provide a scapegoat.
The poor, women and children, gays, minorities, immigrants. What they have in common is not that they are destroying our country. What they have in common is that they are those not in power, they are the weaker among us. They are the groups that bullies feed on.
But the LGBT among us stood up and stopped being afraid of the bullies. The immigrants who live among us, whether legal or not, are standing up so that we can see that they are essential, and can no longer be picked on. Minorities will stop letting the bullies pit them against each other, and when they unite, they will be minorities no more.
Women are beginning to fight back. We are finding our heroes, like Wendy Davis. We are beginning to see that the fight against abortion is a red herring that allows the powerful to continue to gain wealth and power while we fight among ourselves.
And the poor? Thanks to the success of bullies like Mitch McConnell, more of us than ever have joined their ranks. Which means that when we fight back, we will be formidable.
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