Rubio Blasts Reid For Hispanic Comment

A prominent Hispanic Republican criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Wednesday for questioning how Latinos could side with the GOP.

Marco Rubio, Florida’s Republican Senatorial candidate, said during an interview with Fox News that the agenda the Majority Leader is setting will ultimately drive Latinos away from the Democratic party.

“The number one issue in the Hispanic community in America is economic empowerment,“ Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, said. “I believe a growing number of Hispanics will become Republicans because the agenda Reid supports kills Hispanic dreams for their children.”

During a campaign event Tuesday Tuesday, the Majority Leader said, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican. OKay? Do I need to say more?”

When asked by a reporter later to clarify his remarks, Reid responded, “My comment is directed towards how anyone could support what is going on now, especially with my opponent, being in favor of Yucca Mountain, wanting to do away with Medicare and Social Security, the Department of Energy and on and on.”

Reid is running for a fifth term against Republican Sharron Angle.

Obama Touts Economic Progress, Stumps For Reid

President Barack Obama focused on the economy Friday while stumping for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in Nevada.

“An economy that was shrinking is now growing,” Obama said from the University of Las Vegas. “We’ve gained private sector jobs for each of the past six months, instead of losing them. Almost 600,000 new jobs.”

However, Obama added, the fiscal state of the U.S. is still not up to par. To rectify this, the President emphasized his administration’s plan to expand tax credits for companies pursuing clean energy.

“I’m urging Congress to invest $5 billion more in these kinds of clean energy manufacturing tax credits, more than doubling the amount we made available last year,” Obama said. “This investment would generate nearly 40,000 jobs and $12 billion or more in private sector investment which could trigger could an additional 90,000 jobs.”

Focusing on Reid, Obama touted the Senator’s leadership and acknowledged the often-times politically difficult legislation the 70 year old candidate guided through the upper chamber.

This legislation, especially the Recovery Act and health care reform, has made Reid a top target for Republican activists. His challenger, former state legislator Sharron Angle, is a tea party favorite. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, Reid is trailing Angle by seven percent.

Colleagues Celebrate Life, Legacy Of Robert Byrd

Legislators and Presidents gathered in West Virginia Friday to honor the memory of recently deceased Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history.

“He was a Senate icon, he was a party leader, he was an elder statesman and he was my friend,” President Barack Obama said from the West Virginia Capitol’s north plaza, the site of the memorial service.

Byrd, who died early Monday morning, served three terms in the House of Representatives in the 1950s. In 1958, he was elected to the Senate, where throughout his career he assumed the roles of Majority Leader, chairman of the Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore, leaving him fourth in line for the Presidency. He was well known as a firery advocate for his state and secured his constituents with an unprecedented level of federal funds.

Earlier in his life, the West Virginia Democrat was briefly a member of the Ku Klux Klan and filibustered against the Civil Rights Act in 1964. However, as his career progressed Byrd reversed many of his positions and expressed shame over both periods in his life.

“He was a country boy from the hills … of West Virgina and he was trying to get elected. Maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done, [but] he spent the rest of his life making it up,” former President Bill Clinton said. “That’s what a good person does.”

In the 2008 Democratic Primary Byrd endorsed Obama over then Senator Hillary Clinton.

A number of those in attendance touched warmly upon Byrd’s command of history and literature.

“He had an incredible, prodigious memory,” Vice President Joe Biden, who served 35 years with Byrd in the Senate, said. “I remember one time sitting with the queen of England … and he recited the entire lineage of the Tudors and every year each one had served.”

Added Biden, “She sat there and I thought her bonnet was going to flip off her head.”

Byrd’s declining health relegated the Senator to the sidelines for much of the last year. However, on Christmas Eve the wheelchair bound Byrd was brought into the upper chamber to deliver a decisive vote to pass health care reform.

Also in attendance for Friday’s memorial service were Senate Majority and Minority Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the widow of deceased Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) Vicki Kennedy.

On Thursday, Byrd laid in repose in the Senate chamber for six hours. Starting Monday, his Senate desk was draped in black and adorned with a pot of white flowers and his personal copy of the constitution. Byrd was 92.

White House Rejects Reid-Lott Comparison Over Racially Tinged Remarks

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs brushed away suggestions that controversial remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could be compared to a suggestion made by former Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) that the U.S. would be better off if now-deceased Senator Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) had been elected on a segregationist platform.

“I don’t understand how one draws the analogy to a former Majority Leader expressing his support for the defeat of Harry Truman in 1948 so that Strom Thurmond would be president running on a states’ rights ticket,” Gibbs said during a press conference Monday. “To draw that analogy strains any intellectual enterprise or any ... reality.”

The Press Secretary seemed to take a swipe at Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who made the comparison on a talk show Sunday.

“I understand what people have to say ... to get themselves on T.V.,” Gibbs remarked. “I suggest they spend about twenty seconds reading a little history”

Reid reportedly told reporters amid the 2008 Presidential campaign that then-Senator Barack Obama would benefit from being “light-skinned” and having “no negro dialect.” The president accepted Reid’s subsequent apology.

“The President didn’t take offense personally, but believes ... that this is an unfortunate choice of words,” Gibbs said.

Lott’s comments were made during a ceremony for Strom Thurmond’s birthday in 2002. The Mississippi Republican said that if Thurmond had won the presidency, the U.S. would not “have had all these problems over all these years.” Lott resigned from his leadership post after the remarks prompted a wave of controversy.

Gibbs declined to speculate on how Reid could have more appropriately phrased his statement.

Health Care Vote May Take Place Prior To Christmas Eve

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stated Tuesday that the Senate may not hold it’s landmark vote on health care reform Christmas eve. Instead, the body could put the legislation up for its final vote Wednesday.

“Certainly with the ice storms coming ... we hope we can finish tomorrow and not have to do Christmas eve,” Reid said during a late morning press conference.

“But we’ll do whatever is necessary,” the Majority Leader added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested on the floor Tuesday that his party may back holding the vote sooner than initially planned.

“[Reid and I] are working on an agreement that will give certainty to the way to end this session,” said McConnell. “Hopefully, the two of us together can be recommending something that makes sense for both sides in the not too distant future."