Reid: I Won't Be Obama Rubber Stamp

Senate majority leader vows Congress won't just be Obama's rubber stamp

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 7, 2009 8:45 AM CST

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Reid: I Won't Be Obama Rubber Stamp — Barack Obama, center, walks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., left, and Vice-President elect Joe Biden, right, following a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The 111th Congress is going to be a lot more than just a rubber stamp for Barack Obama's policies, Harry Reid tells the Hill. The Senate majority leader says Democrats must take care to avoid over-reaching. "If Obama steps over the bounds, I will tell him," the Democrat says. "I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him.”

Reid aims to build bipartisan consensus and to restore to the legislative branch some of the power sapped from it by the aggressive Bush White House. "I don't believe in the executive power trumping everything," he says. "I believe in our Constitution, three separate but equal branches of government.” To keep the separation clear, Reid says, Joe Biden won't be allowed to sit in on Senate policy lunches the way Dick Cheney was.
(More Obama administration stories.)

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