Monday, January 12, 2009

A Tower of Strength!

That would not be Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has caved in his opposition to Roland Burris, the senator-designate from Illinois appointed by scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Whether Reid should have opposed Burris or not is, I suppose, a question with two sides. But by drawing a line in the sand and figuring Gov. Haircut would slink meekly away, trembling at the might of a man who has absolutely no influence whatsoever in his state was a typical Reid move. That is to say, it was dumb. Reid's lofty-sounding letters to Blagojevich and his equally tough-guy rhetoric to Burris might have made him look good, if he could have backed them up.

But he bluffed, got called on it and didn't have the hole cards or the chips to win his play. Despite the timeless truth first articulated by Kenny Rogers, Reid didn't know when to hold them or when to fold them.

He gained the majority leader post when enough people got tired of dorky Republican senators that they elected enough of my fellow Dems to make them the majority. And I believe that Harry Reid will be one of the primary reasons that the GOP will regain control of the Senate when they do, with his only option of escape being immediate retirement and entering a monastery. I have little hope for him, though, because he doesn't seem likely to know Kenny's second timeless truth, about knowing when to walk away and when to run.

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