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      Cortez Masto

      Losing Ground, Cortez Masto Defeat in Nevada Could Cost Democrats Senate Majority

      The tight race highlights the potential pitfalls of Democratic candidates relying on their pro-choice positions to secure wins and not effectively combating GOP campaigning on the economy.

      Jessica Corbett
      Oct 12, 2022

      With less than a month before the midterm elections, recent polling and reporting have heightened fears about the GOP seizing control of the evenly split U.S. Senate--and particularly, whether Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada can hold on to her seat.

      Cortez Masto's is one of few key Senate races--along with those in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin--that election watchers largely consider a toss-up. In Nevada, the first-term incumbent senator faces Republican Adam Laxalt, who succeeded her as state attorney general.

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      Harry Reid answering questions in Washington, D.C.

      Harry Reid's Disastrous Foreign Policy Record Should Not Be Forgotten

      With Reid leading Senate Democrats, George W. Bush was emboldened in his reckless and dangerous foreign policy agenda regarding Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, and elsewhere.

      Stephen Zunes
      Jan 04, 2022

      The death of former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada has brought forth praise for his parliamentary skills, which helped make possible some critically important legislation, as well as preventing the passage of a number of seriously problematic bills. However, on the foreign policy front, it should be noted that Reid not only failed to challenge dangerous Republican initiatives that violated fundamental principles of international law and human rights, he was often among their most prominent supporters.

      As the Senate Assistant Majority Leader in 2002, Reid was prominent among the rightwing minority of Congressional Democrats who supported President George W. Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq. To help win public support for this illegal war, Reid teamed up with the Bush Administration, prominent neoconservatives, and Fox News in making a series of false allegations regarding Iraq's military capability.

      It is sad to have to acknowledge that a highly effective legislator who left a generally positive mark on domestic policy... simultaneously played such a deleterious role regarding international affairs.

      The resolution authorizing the use of military force against Iraq accused that nation, without evidence, of "continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability [and] actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, thereby continuing to threaten the national security interests of the United States."

      When other Democratic Senators tried to limit the war resolution so as not to give President Bush the blank check he was seeking, Reid helped circumvent such efforts by signing on to the White House's version.

      As the Democratic whip, Reid then persuaded a majority of Democratic Senators to vote down a resolution offered by Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, that would authorize force only if the U.N. Security Council voted to give the United States this authority. They instead supported a Republican-led resolution giving Bush the right to invade even without such legal authorization. (By contrast, a sizable majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives, under the leadership of then-whip Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, voted against the GOP resolution.)

      But the alleged weapons of mass destruction were never really the issue. Indeed, Reid continued to support the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, even after it was apparent, as many arms control experts had been arguing all along, that there were no banned weapons, weapons systems, or manufacturing facilities to be found.

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      Harry Reid speaks to the press

      As Harry Reid Dies at 82, Democrats Urged to Take His Advice and Abolish the Filibuster

      "The future of our country is sacrificed at the altar of the filibuster. Something must change," the former Senate majority leader wrote in 2019.

      Jake Johnson
      Dec 29, 2021

      As condolences for the loved ones of Harry Reid poured in following his death Tuesday at the age of 82, progressives recalled the former Senate majority leader's vocal condemnations of the upper chamber's filibuster rule and urged Democrats to honor the late Nevada lawmaker by eliminating it for good.

      "In a chamber where too many Democrats can be afraid of their own shadow, Harry Reid was willing to deliver for the American people and didn't care what it took," tweeted Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) following news of Reid's passing. "They should learn from his example and abolish the filibuster."

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