Appearing on “Special Report” Monday night, columnist Charles Krauthammer said that while the Republicans have been dubbed the “party of no,” the GOP now has their chance to show that the Democrats embodied that moniker in recent years. Krauthammer told guest host Ed Henry that former Majority Leader Harry Reid is a “living veto pen” and spared Obama, who’s issued only two vetoes during his presidency, from having to do it himself.
KRAUTHAMMER: Harry Reid is a living veto pen and he saved the president from red states who were running for re-election having to cast a vote that would be unpopular. But Harry Reid is now gone at least as majority leader. This is a great opportunity for Republicans to do two things: pass everything that you believe in that you want to see passed. Jason [Riley] is absolutely right, they don’t care if it gets the veto. It’s win-win. If the president vetoes it, it proves what in fact the president actually said himself in the same interview.
One of the reasons he didn’t have to veto, is, as he said himself, Harry Reid blocked so much in the Senate that he didn’t like. So, in fact, this is a way for Republicans to retroactively reshape their image. They have been called the party of no, Democrats did that for obvious reasons, the media has accepted it as gospel truth. This will be a way to show that the party of no for the four years before now has been Harry Reid, and once you got rid of him, the Republicans could actually enact stuff. Start with Keystone [XL pipeline], do tax reform, do a whole bunch of other stuff, and watch what the president does.