The Washington Post sounded just like a Democratic Party rag, getting out a hanky at the news that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid won’t run for re-election. The front-page headline was “Reid laying down gloves after 28 years in Senate: From hardscrabble childhood, he rose to pinnacle of power.” Inside, the headline was “Democrats’ master of manuever will not seek reelection in 2016.”
Post congressional correspondent Paul Kane tenderly eulogized Senator Reid as if he’d already passed away. He began:
Harry M. Reid, the amateur boxer from a tiny mining town who clawed his way to the top of the national political ladder in Washington, never showed any sign of fear. But Friday, as he announced his exit plans, Reid admitted that he was “scared to death” when he finally got to the top.
After his colleagues elected him Senate minority leader in late 2004, he faced the press corps, unscripted.
“I know how to dance, I know how to fight. I’d rather dance than fight,” Reid (D-Nev.) said back then in a declaration that came to define his reign as this young century’s most influential senator.
The Democratic rag paid tribute to Reid for Obama’s legislative “achievements” like the “stimulus” bill, Obamacare, and Dodd-Frank:
But his legacy will be defined just as much by his deft parliamentary maneuvers to push forward sweeping laws that might not have passed under different leadership.
In President Obama’s first month in office, Reid helped pass an $800 billion economic stimulus plan, an expansion of a children’s health program and a pay-equity law for female workers. Then, through the rest of 2009 and the first half of 2010, Reid used painstaking patience to shepherd the landmark Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank rewrite of Wall Street regulations into law.
Kane played up the humble biography, just as Reid always has: “The son of a miner and a mother who washed clothes at a brothel, Reid grew up in a shack without plumbing. Local businessmen helped pay for his college tuition at Utah State University, and, after getting accepted into George Washington University Law School, he worked his way through to a law degree by serving as a Capitol Police officer. His father killed himself in 1972.”
Perhaps the most ridiculous part of Kane’s stories is how Reid’s gaffes – like guessing Mitt Romney paid his taxes, or proclaiming we lost the war in Iraq – were never gaffes. He only had what critics “called” gaffes:
Reid was famous for his sharp tongue. Critics called Reid’s most heated statements “gaffes,” but they missed the broader point: He meant most of his insults and often was proud of them.
He once called President George W. Bush a “liar” and later dubbed him a “loser” in front of a high school class in Las Vegas. He apologized later for calling him a loser — Bush was traveling abroad at the time — but took pride in never apologizing for the 2002 “liar” remark.
His soft-spoken utterances never matched the soaring oratory of contemporaries such as Kennedy, but his mastery of the Senate’s rules and an understanding of every senator’s personal and political needs made him a force.
We hope Kane doesn't miss the broader point: He sounds like the DNC pays him residuals.
Kane also showed the love for Reid on Twitter:
Reid, boxer from a tiny mining town who clawed his way to top of national political ladder, never showed fear. http://t.co/8bLg9k0n3f
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) March 28, 2015
1 of Reid's magic moments was coaxing Jeffords to switch sides. @PrestonCNN @BresPolitico & me covered for RC. Gets short shrift sometimes.
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) March 28, 2015
Reid's life reads like Huck or Tom: a shack, no plumbing, drunken father, hitching to school. Great Twain backdrop. http://t.co/oqL8uHNrI0
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) March 28, 2015
