Washington Post: With Reid out of power, Congress is actually doing things again.

For the last six years, we've heard a constant, familiar, story. Republicans are evil obstructionists who want to grind the gears of government to a standstill.

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They were more interested in waging a battle of "political one-upsmanship" against President Obama than in "doing the people’s business." It was a battle-cry that echoed through every mainstream media publication and broadcast. Then, Democrats were demolished in the 2014 midterms. Now, those same "obstructionists" have taken control of Congress, and some media outlets are wondering why things are suddenly working so well. As the WaPo writes:

No one could have seen this one coming. Suddenly, Congress is actually doing things. Making compromises. Passing legislation. Confirming people. ...The relevant question to ask here is: Why? After all, the past two Congresses were renowned largely for their historic lack of productivity.

Gosh, whatever could it be? Could it be that the Senate majority leader who prevented hundreds of pieces of legislation from coming to the Senate floor is now the minority leader? Could that be it? Just maybe? Hint: Yes. That's it. Republicans and Democrats agree. Things are working better now that a certain elderly obstructionist named Harry Reid has lost his power.

Added another smart Republican mind: "Following the collapse of the Grand Bargain talks in the summer of 2011, Reid essentially shut down the Senate (presumably at President Obama’s request) until after the presidential election. . . . Now, McConnell is making the Senate work again, and President Obama (in the final quarter of his presidency) would like some sort of second-term legacy. So things are moving." It's not just Republicans who are blaming Reid. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who announced this week that he will seek reelection in 2016 rather than run for governor, took a shot at Reid's tenure as leader, too. “His leadership and the things he thought would work did not,"Manchin said on "Morning Joe." "So with that, you just move on.”

Now, we can all argue about whether or not this new era of alleged compromise is a good thing. One can make a strong case for the idea that the less our current "leaders" do, the better off we'll be. Still the "it's all Republicans' fault" mantra has been shown to be a completely disingenuous canard. Remove history's most toxic Senate majority leader, and government starts "working." What a shock.