McConnell warns Reid to give GOP input

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday
sent a message to Democrats that Republicans are not prepared to bend to a
stronger majority.

In letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.),
McConnell urged Reid to adopt a more conciliatory tone and warned him that
Republicans will unite against Democrats if he does not. The letter was signed
by all 40 GOP senators and two Republican incumbents who are awaiting the
results of elections in Georgia and Minnesota.

{mosads}“As a caucus,
Republicans will insist on our basic right to participate in the legislative
process,” McConnell wrote to Reid. “The Republican Conference intends to
protect the Senate’s history of full and open consideration of major
legislation, which includes a fair amendment process and the opportunity for
debate.”

Reid
responded by saying that he supports working across party lines but blasting
Republicans for obstructing the work of the current Congress.

“I
have always said that Democrats and Republicans need to work together to pass
legislation that helps people in their daily lives. After Republicans in
the last Congress opted for a strategy of blocking progress, the American
people clearly rejected those partisan tactics,” Reid stated.  “They have
given us another opportunity to work together in the 111th Congress as the
people of this country expect, and I look forward to working with my colleagues
on both sides of the aisle to come up with solutions that will get our country
back on track.”

The minority
leader also held an unusually long news conference Friday to reiterate points
made in his letter. He said Republicans are not sorry to see President Bush
leave office, given his unpopularity, and praised Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
for running a “fabulous” campaign “under very, very difficult circumstances.”

McConnell pressed
Democrats to address the future of Social Security and urged Republicans to
defeat ‘card-check’ legislation that would allow workers to bypass
secret-ballot elections when organizing unions.

“What I’m saying
to the new president and the new administration: ‘Do big things, and do them in
the center, and you’ll be surprised at how much support you might have,’ ”
he said at the news conference.

Otherwise,
McConnell warned, his party would stand together and block a far-left agenda.

“You’re likely to have very significant unity among
Republicans,” he said.

In regard to this
week’s failure to pass an auto bailout package, McConnell said he supported a
plan by Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) that would lift
restrictions on $25 billion in loans that has already been granted by Congress
to help the industry make more fuel-efficient cars. The White House has also
pushed that idea as the only possibility to pass through the Senate.

“It strikes me
that the Bond-Voinovich proposal, which is basically rewriting the terms of
money we’ve already appropriated, would be a way to get a law,” he said.

McConnell
bristled when a reporter suggested his reelection race in Kentucky against Democrat
Bruce Lunsford was “close,” but said he had no ill will toward Reid or
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.), who
poured millions into the race to defeat McConnell.

“Let me hasten to
remind you, my election was not close,” McConnell said. “I won by over 100,000
votes, I carried 87 out of 120 counties, and it was the third-largest margin
I’ve ever gotten. It was contested, but it was not close.”

McConnell took nine days to return a congratulatory phone call from
Reid after the election, but the Republican leader returned a flurry of
other calls earlier. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said McConnell
called President-elect Barack Obama the day after the election — Obama
returned the call a day later — but took another week before calling
Reid back on Nov. 13. Stewart said he did not know the reason for the
delay, but did say McConnell had a long list of callbacks to make.

McConnell on Friday said he was not disheartened by the widespread GOP losses on Nov. 4
because the party has a strong stock of governors and up-and-coming Senate
leaders.

“We are beginning
a slow and deliberative process of finding our way back,” he said. “Both
parties have done this periodically. My reaction to the election was not one of
despair, but one of understanding that we have to retool and come back.”