The new ‘party of no’— no vote that is

Kimberley Strassel, writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, has a new appellation for Nevada’s senior senator: Obama’s veto pen.

Under the headline “The New Party of No: Majority Leader Harry Reid will soon be blocking, obstructing or deterring nearly all the reforms the Republican House sends to the Senate,” Strassel suggests Reid will not even let certain House-passed reforms come up for a vote lest the measures attract the votes of Democratic senators who “had the Cheez Whiz scared out of them by the recent midterms.”

Strassel predicts the House will be sending on an almost weekly basis to the Senate spending cuts, changes in job-killing EPA rules, tax relief and regulatory relief — bills vulnerable Democrats might find hard to resist.

“Their support may, paradoxically, make it less likely Mr. Reid brings any of the bills up for a vote,” she writes. “For every vulnerable 2012 member, Mr. Reid has a safe liberal member demanding he not bend. More notably, he's got a president to keep in the White House. And Mr. Obama remains vehemently opposed to most GOP reforms.

“If Mr. Reid does let GOP reforms proceed, some Democrats will join Republicans in voting for them. That puts President Obama in the embarrassing position of having to veto ‘bipartisan’ legislation. The president is counting on Mr. Reid not to let this happen, to be his veto pen, and Mr. Reid's own philosophical inclinations qualify him for that role. And so even as the House GOP basks in the glow of its new, more transparent rules, Mr. Reid will be resorting to all manner of filibusters and procedural tricks to prevent Senate Republicans from forwarding any measure or amendment that could attract Democratic support.”

The article online and in print is accompanied by a most unflattering AP photo of our senator.