Ford O'Connell and Joe Lestingi debate over Jonathan Gruber's role.

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Hoping to galvanize their base further, Republicans are casting the midterm elections as a golden opportunity to fire Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who has served as lead blocker for President Obama’s liberal agenda on Capitol Hill and chief opponent of GOP legislation.

The attacks are being espoused inside and outside the Capital Beltway and could become staples of the Republican message as the party looks to pick up the six seats needed to take the Senate gavel out of Mr. Reid’s hands.

On Wednesday, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus described Mr. Reid as “dirty” and “unethical.”

The RNC circulated a memo that played up a Federal Election Commission inquiry into campaign cash that Mr. Reid reimbursed after using the money to purchase gifts for his granddaughter.

Ford O’Connell, a GOP strategist, said Mr. Reid, a former boxer and ex-chairman of the powerful Nevada Gaming Commission, likely relishes being “best bodyguard that president Obama has.” He said Republicans are targeting the Nevada Democrat in hopes of sustaining the momentum they have built in recent months attacking Mr. Obama and his signature legislative achievement, theAffordable Care Act.

“You need another quiver in the arrow to keep the grass roots energized. Not to mention, it is one heck of a fundraiser,” Mr. O’Connell said. “Reid has been a check on the Republican House while simultaneously pushing President Obama’s agenda.”

Read more from Seth McLaughlin at The Washington Times

Harry Reid of Nevada, the top Democrat in the Senate, isn’t on the ballot this November. But Republicans are effectively trying to put him there.

By going after Senator Reid, the theory goes, Republicans will make him poisonous to Democratic senators in tough reelection battles around the country – the very Democrats Reid needs to hold onto the majority leader job. 

Republicans say the tactic worked in 2010, when they made “Fire Pelosi” the rallying cry in their effort to retake the House and boot then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the speaker’s chair. The Democrats got skunked, and Speaker Pelosi got demoted.

On Wednesday, Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Reince Priebus launched his party’s latest attack on Reid: a charge that he is violating Senate ethics rules by putting “partisan campaign attacks” on his Senate website and Twitter feed.

Reid’s spokesman didn’t reply directly to the ethics charge, instead returning fire on the GOP.

Whether Republicans can turn Reid into the bogeyman of the 2014 midterms is an open question. Reid’s public persona is low-key and at times awkward, though behind the scenes, he is seen as a wily operator.

“Will all of these charges against Reid stick? Probably not,” says Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “But Republicans loathe Harry Reid. He’s on a par with Nancy Pelosi. It helps them put a face on another reason why they should take the Senate.”

The attacks on Reid also energize mega-donors, who may then open their wallets again, Mr. O’Connell says.

Read more from Linda Feldmann at The Chrisitian Science Monitor

The negotiation dance continues in Washington, as House conservatives try and squeeze the best deal they can from House leadership and vice versa while the Senate awaits their counterpart's latest proposal. House leadership floated a proposal initially expected to face a vote Tuesday night, but the plan was scuttled thanks to a lack of support from conservatives.

Senators struck a bipartisan deal Monday night that would reopen the federal government until Jan. 15 and lift the debt limit until Feb. 7, with the hope that budget negotiators can hammer out a longer-term spending package by the end of the year. But they held off on a vote, giving House Republicans a chance to digest the proposal that would also delay the medical device tax aimed at helping fund President Barack Obama's health care law.

But Boehner and his team scrapped a vote because they couldn't find the support needed among conservatives and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the proposal would have to pass without Democratic votes.

Ford O'Connell, a Republican political consultant, says Boehner's working to convince his caucus that they need to strike a deal now in order to make further spending cut gains in the next round of negotiations.

"It's important to recognize that John Boehner is between a rock and a hard place, and he's playing the long game and some people are playing the short game," O'Connell says. "He realizes he's in much better shape in the next round of talks because the one thing that they have on the bargaining table [is] sequestration. Now the question for Republicans is what strategy are they going to go with?"

Read more from Rebekah Metzler at U.S. News & World Report

From Byron York At The Washington Examiner:

Tuesday marks the 1,350th day since the Senate passed a budget. The law requires Congress to pass a budget every year, on the grounds that Americans deserve to know how the government plans to spend the trillions of taxpayer dollars it collects, along with dollars it borrows at the taxpayers' expense. But Majority Leader Harry Reid, who last allowed a budget through the Senate in April 2009, has ignored the law since then.

There are no specific proposals yet, but under this scenario Republicans would insist on a debt ceiling agreement that includes (among other things) a requirement that Congress pass a budget by a specific date. If that doesn't happen, there would be some sort of enforcement mechanism, perhaps an arrangement whereby the debt ceiling was lowered, or one in which Congress would have to muster a supermajority to raise it again.

Indeed, it's true that Reid, Obama, and Democrats in general have not suffered much adverse public opinion for their refusal to pass a budget. But by raising the issue's profile as part of the debt-ceiling fight...many Republicans hope that is about to change.

We're five weeks out from the "fiscal cliff deadline," and it’s becoming apparent one of America’s two political parties has to give.

One has to level with the people about the choices that lie ahead, face up to the results of the election, cease considering itself bound by promises to outsiders and commit itself, finally, to finding a durable solution.

And that party is the Democratic Party.

So let’s pose a few questions and figure out who truly refuses to budge here. If Republicans agreed to return to Clinton-era tax rates, would Democrats agree to return to Clinton-era spending rates? If Republicans accepted the 10:1 cuts-to-taxes deal, would Democrats consider means-testing Medicare, holding off on the most costly taxes and programs of ObamaCare or — forget and — embracing a premium support program for Medicare?

Of course not. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he won’t even consider entitlement reform in the negotiations. It’s time Democrats find a way to say yes. And it’s time for more umpires in the press room to remove their rose-colored glasses and start looking at this honestly. 

Read more from Ford O'Connell at The Hill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) infuriated Republicans during the campaign with his harsh partisan attacks and now faces the delicate task of mending his relationship with the GOP.

Some Republicans say Reid poisoned his relationship with their party by waging controversial attacks against GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. They were most angered by Reid’s charge that Romney had not paid taxes in ten years, attributing the information to an anonymous source.

Reid said Romney, a fellow Mormon, “sullied” their shared faith after the GOP nominee told a group of donors that 47 percent of Americans suffered from a sense of victimhood and mooched off the government. Reid declared in the closing days of the campaign that Senate Democrats would not work with Romney to pass his “severely conservative” agenda.

One GOP strategist said the pressure to get a deficit-reduction deal is too high to let bitter feelings left over from the campaign get in the way. Memories of Reid’s harsh attacks could complicate progress on other issues.

“When there’s less pressure to get a deal done, some of the stuff he pulled on the campaign trail against Romney could come back to haunt him,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “Somewhere down the line Republicans may pick a time to get even with Harry Reid because he went off the reservation on some of that stuff. In politics, what goes around comes around.”

Read more from Alexander Bolton at The Hill

In this era of “anything goes” politics, Harry Reid’s statements are sadly par for the course.

That said, the senior Senator from Nevada is probably lucky that he has immunity from prosecution for making what clearly appear to be unsubstantiated accusations on the Senate floor.

Romney shouldn’t engage in this back-and-forth, because Reid is a hardened political street fighter who has nothing to lose.

Read more from Ford O'Connell at Politico's "The Arena"

Republicans are pushing back strongly against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) claims that Mitt Romney had failed to pay taxes for multiple years, but the controversy and Democratic pressure on the GOP candidate to release more of his tax records shows little sign of dying down.

One GOP strategist also warns that hitting back at Reid fails to damage Romney’s real opponent in the run up to the November election: President Obama.

“They're trying to fight back at Reid so it backfires on Obama. What makes Reid such a dangerous weapon is he doesn't care,” GOP strategist Ford O’Connell told The Hill. “Reid is putting Romney in a tough situation. When you're slapping back at Harry Reid it keeps the issue in the public eye. They're going to have to make a determination of how much longer they want to keep sticking to their guns.”

O’Connell, though, suggests a cautious approach for the Romney camp. 

“There may come a time when they do need to release those tax returns but they need to play this one out first,” he advised.

Romney has personally responded to Reid’s attacks, calling on the Senate majority leader to “put up or shut up” earlier in the week, and a number of people on both sides of the aisle have criticized Reid for his unverified accusations.

But the Nevada senator has also gleefully refused to back down, and shown he’s willing to take the heat in order to keep Romney’s taxes in the news.

Read more from Cameron Joseph at The Hill