The Trouble with Harry

With one week to go, there's no sign that any liberal group will mount a challenge to the selection of Harry Reid as Senate Minority Leader.

E-mailing all 45 Democrats in the Senate got me a handful of pleasant form letters. I'm thinking about calling them next, since being a cog in the machinery of republic provides comfort in dark times.

Molly Ivins panned the selection of Reid this morning:

... let's get a battler from a safe blue state who doesn't have to worry about re-election all the time. I like Harry Reid, but Nevada is not blue and he's a little charismatically challenged.

Reid sounds like a solid red-state Democrat, but anyone who thinks he'll be a liberal bulwark against the Bush juggernaut should read his offical biography, which begins with admiring quotes from Trent Lott and Orrin Hatch and a photo of Reid gladhanding President Reagan.

A lot of people think that Reid's ability to dish out a parliamentary ass-kicking is all that matters. But if you share the view of James Carville and other mopey Democrats that the party needs a stronger message, the Minority Leader should be an articulate, unequivocal, and loud voice for our views.

Comments

Starting to warm up to Reid. He might be strategic and fierce. He can use underhanded tactics to get around the filibuster problem.

Tough call though.

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