Power play: Harry Reid sidelined Joe Biden

[dkf]

Power play: Harry Reid sidelined Joe Biden

For now, Democrats have frozen Joe Biden out of shutdown negotiations. | AP Photo

By JONATHAN ALLEN and CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 10/8/13 5:01 AM EDT Updated: 10/8/13 9:07 AM EDT
When President Barack Obama laid out his strategy for the current debt-limit fight in a private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this past summer, Reid stipulated one condition: No Joe Biden.

And while Biden attended the White House dog-and-pony show meeting last week with congressional leaders, Reid has effectively barred him from the backrooms, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The vice president’s disappearance has grown ever more noticeable as the government shutdown enters its eighth day with no resolution in sight and a debt limit crisis looms. Biden was once Democrats’ deal-maker-in-chief, designing budget pacts with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the summer of 2011 and New Year’s Eve 2013.

But Biden’s deals rubbed Democrats raw. He gave up too much, they said.

And for that, they have frozen him out — at least for now.

“None of the deals Biden has struck have aged well from the perspective of the Democratic Caucus,” said one Senate Democratic official aware of Reid’s face-to-face insistence that Biden be excluded.

A White House official said there are no negotiations at this point so there are no back channels for Biden to work. The official pointed to Biden’s inclusion in last week’s White House meeting with congressional leaders as an indication that the vice president is being kept in the loop.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/joe-biden-government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-97969.html#ixzz2h8pGHDRQ

[Mass]

1. This is unsourced crap, not surprising coming from Politico. There is no negotiation, so how can

Biden be frozen out of something that does not exist.

[flamingdem]

2. Agree. It's divisive BS. Biden isn't there because there's no deal

check out this for detail

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023805003

[dkf]

8. Hello my post confirms your post. It's the same thing

[flamingdem]

12. No, it show how people like to say there is strife between democrats

as in the tweets cited.

But then the analysis that adds up is not that Harry pushed Joe out but that Joe is used when dealmaking commences.

It's a right wingy thingy to push the meme of division within the Dem ranks. The Dems are very united at this time.

[dkf]

16. Harry didn't want a deal, therefore Joe was never called in.

Still looks like the same thing I said.

[dkf]

3. Frankly it's more favorable to Biden than earlier suggestions he was protecting his Prez ambitions

People know he was negotiating these deals in the past.

[Cali_Democrat]

4. +1000

[Berlum]

7. According to "sources at the heart of the propaganda catapult seeking to divide and conquer America"

...is the way the so-called "attribution" in this "article" should be worded.

[Whisp]

5. ...

-according to sources familiar with the situation
-they said
-said one Senate Democratic official
-A White House official said

[Skidmore]

10. Politico "reporting"

is enough for me to not take this as anything other than claptrap trying to gin up more division.

[Orrex]

6. I read that Biden was washing his car on the Whitehouse driveway with no shirt on

[msanthrope]

9. It was the Trans-Am....

http://www.theonion.com/articles/shirtless-biden-washes-trans-am-in-white-house-dri,2718/

[Orrex]

14. That's the one!

And I'll thank you not to question my sources!

[msanthrope]

17. I no longer question the veracity and perspicacity of The Onion....not since this.....

http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros,464/

[Orrex]

19. Sad but true but sad.

[msanthrope]

20. This is what I sent around the Internets on Sept. 12, 2001. nt

[msanthrope]

11. This is concerning. nt

[global1]

13. They Should Only Bring Biden In If There Are Negotiations.....

This is not the time to negotiate with the Repugs. The Dems have given ground already but they and the President should not be subjects to this continued extortion by the Repugs. When the Repugs had a chance to sit at a negotiating table they didn't take it.
Biden is on a team here. The team strategy now is 'no negotiations' - 'no conversations' until we get a clean CR passed and the debt limit is raised. Then and only then - should the Dems, the President & Biden sit down with these terrorists and talk.

Biden is a team player and he is doing his part now. This crap by Politico about Biden being shut out by Reid - is just that - crap.

[Schema Thing]

15. writers gotta write.

[DURHAM D]

18. "None of the deals Biden has struck have aged well..."

Link to article regarding the Biden deal at the end of 2012 -

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/fiscal-cliff-hanger-as-deal-in-limbo-85599.html