Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s tyrannical style of leadership is pushing the chamber to “the verge of a death spiral,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. said Thursday.

“If you let people run roughshod over you – just like we’re seeing right now with [Vladimir] Putin in Russia, where he’s getting no pushback from the United States – then, obviously, people will continue to take advantage of you,” Corker said at a morning breakfast hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, The Hill reported.

In rejecting all Republican amendments to pending legislation and sapping the life from the filibuster procedure, Reid has pushed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., into a corner and forced him to hold up votes, Corker said, adding that the Senate is unlikely to make any traction on major issues such as tax reform and immigration overhaul this year.

He called Reid’s refusing to bring a bipartisan Iran sanctions bill to an up-or-down vote “reprehensible” and “beyond belief.”

“The U.S. Senate will not function in an appropriate way with the leadership we have now,” the senator said. “When you have a leader that is totally bent on ensuring that there’s no debate, you’re going to find people looking for all kinds of avenues to try to bring something to the floor.”

Two days after the president called for fast-tracking foreign trade agreements in his State of the Union address, Reid slow-tracked the issue, saying, “I think everyone would be well-advised not to push this right now.”

Then on Wednesday, he sparked a national firestorm by calling the Koch brothers “un-American” individuals with “no conscience” and insinuating that everyday Americans telling “horror stories” about Obamacare were simply lying.

And then there was Reid’s obstinacy on Obama’s cherished $10.10 minimum-wage bill, refusing to call for a vote and blaming a disorganized party caucus.

It’s leadership like this that caused Corker to say Thursday, “I see no way anything important is going to be dealt with this year.”

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Richard Berkow

Former political news reporter Richard Berkow lost his idealism in the Kennedy years, and his innocence in Vietnam, Lebanon, and the Soviet Union. He hasn’t mellowed since, and can be harassed at [email protected]

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