Harry Reid, Prince of Sleeves

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kyle Johnson <kyle () bumperactive com>
Date: November 7, 2005 4:39:56 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: IP Submission


Hi Dave,

I’m a longtime IP reader via the web archive. It seems to me, one of
the untold stories in Washington these days has been Harry Reid’s
positively artful performance as Senate Minority Leader. Since Reid
took the job in Nov ’04 the GOP agenda has been stuck in neutral. The
blame is largely attributed to the unpopularity of the war and
ineptitude of the White House – and to a large degree, rightly so. Look
closely, though, and you’ll Reid’s fingerprints on every defeat. The
guy is a master at pulling just enough screws out of the staircase so
that it tumbles under somebody else’s weight.

I wrote an analysis of Reid’s tenure, using last week’s Senate Shutdown
as an access point to explore Reid’s political modus operandi in
general – which is behind the scenes, disarming, and lethal. If you
would like, please share it with the list. (A web link to the piece,
which has photos and links is at
http://www.bumperactive.com/archives/000605.jsp)

*****
Harry Reid, Prince of Sleeves
By Kyle Johnson
www.bumperactive.com

The Republican reaction to Harry Reid’s Tuesday afternoon parlor trick -
- pulling Rule 21 from behind the Majority Leader’s ear and making the
Senate vanish for a couple of hours -- provides a Petri-dish
explanation for Harriet Miers, FEMA, Social Security reform, the Great
Bloody Boondoggle in Iraq and the fatal flaw of the
Reagan/Gingrich/Rove Revolution in general:

These guys are great at toppling statues. But they’re for absolute
shite in a crisis.

Who knew, Senate rules allow for a single distinguished gentleman to
step up to the mic and, with a solitary second-that-motion, shut the
place down? Sleepy-eyed Harry knew.

So he did, banishing all the reporters and staffers and gawkers,
silencing the Razrs and Blackberries, leaving only the one-hundred men
and women Constitutionally charged to check unbridled Executive power
to face themselves, and the fact that they let a proud nation conjure a
war out of 9/11-smoke and Murdoch’s murderous mirrors.

The other side instantly called it a stunt. Brian Knowlton’s account
for the the International Herald Tribune is the best (although,
strangely, the full version appears only on the NYT site), capturing
not just what was said, but how. Bill Frist in his best wild-eyed
twitchiness:

“To resort to this, this, this stunt, this political stunt -- this
scare tactic -- is really disappointing. But if they want to get in the
gutter, I guess that’s what they’ll do.”

In the end, the Democrats got what they wanted: half a roomful of shell-
shocked Loyal Sycophancy and the creation of a truly bipartisan
committee to investigate why the Republican-run committee to
investigate how facts were fixed to start the war shows no signs
issuing any findings until, oh, sometime after the 2006 mid-term
elections.

The Republicans are right, of course, it was a stunt. Pure High-Hokum
Robert’s Rules Kabuki of the Highest Order, in fact. And one very small
stroke of genius.

You can be forgiven for not having noticed. In this, the Jackson
Pollock Era of political discourse -- all bloody reds and treacherous
yellows, deathly blacks, white noise and endless, indecipherable smears
across the news pages -- Harry Reid harkens the old school. He’s an
Impressionist:

Howls Delay, CRIMINALIZING CONSERVATIVES! Screams Dean, I HATE
REPUBLICANS AND EVERTHING THEY STAND FOR! Kennedy, RESIST ANY
NEANDERTHAL! Santorum, DAMNATION AND DESTRUCION! Cornyn, VIOLENCE
AGAINST JUDGES IS UNDERSTANDABLE! Zell, SPITBALLS! Condi, MUSHROOM
CLOUD! Cheney, FUCK YOURSELF! O’Reilly, SHUT UP!

Meanwhile, back at the Senate... the Desert Fox of Nevada quietly dines
on elephant steak for déjeuner sur l’herbe.

Which of Manet’s is the masterstroke? That’s the funny thing. You know
it’s there, but you just can’t tell.

Outgunned 55-45, with a caucus that’s never known winding it’s ass from
watching it’s watch, Reid has run a political clinic since assuming the
Minority Leadership in November, 2004:

•       Social Security Reform-scam engineered to implode Social
Security? Dead.
•       Killing the Death Tax on the landed gentry? Dead.
•       Permanent tax cuts for the landed gentry? Permanent vegetative
state (Only Dr. Frist still diagnoses 'em as alive).
•       ANWR corporate welfare project? Sharp, shooting chest pains.
•       Harriet Miers? Dead. Remember, though, it was Reid who
recommended her to the president, and kept his own guys from shooting
their mouths off about her.
•       Nuclear option? Condition still critical. But while the
Majority Leader preached to the choir on Justice Sunday, Reid kept his
hand on the pulse of the Gang of Fourteen. Sure, the other side got
three out of five of the judges they wanted out of the deal, and the
Republicans may drop the bomb yet. But what if they’d succeeded in
dropping the bomb in September? There would be no need to even hold
Alito hearings. Moreover, stepping to the brink is even harder the next
time around -- the way the Cuban Missile Crisis made it harder for us
and the Russians to blow each other up. Although, the thinking here is,
Frist doesn’t seem quite as stable as Kruschev....
•       Landslide repudiation of torturing people? Gearing up for the
Boston Marathon, thanks. Sure, it was a McCain sponsored measure (had
to be -- the guy’s a torture victim) but it was Reid who brought up the
issue in January, putting the screws to Alberto Gonzalez during the AG
confirmation hearings for drafting the administrations pro-torture
white paper.
•       And Reid himself? Never there, always around. Look for him
standing behind Chuck Schumer’s shoulder, making the “I’d rather be
blending into a mesa” face.

Even Tuesday, when the Senior Senator from the Silver State took a rare
turn in spotlight, it was vintage Reid: He made his point by kicking
the cameras out, not leaping in front of them. The opposition was
completely flummoxed by it, “Say it Loud, Say it Ugly, Say it on TV”
being the classic play in their book. Compare: evicting the press to
Gingrich’s, 1980s, late-nite, C-SPAN harangues to an empty House
gallery. You can’t.

The timing was impeccable. Reid didn’t just hijack the Senate, he
hijacked half the day’s news. It had begun with all eyes and mouths on
Judge Sam Alito, and for the White House -- still roiling amid a fiasco
of debacles -- there shone the silver light of sunnier seas in the
fawning praises of it’s political base. The day ended under the gun-
metal cloud of a war with 2,000 heroes dead, 15,000 wounded, hundreds
of thousands more thirsting for home in the desert, and the untruths
that put them there.

But more than that, the words Reid spoke in their honor, behind those
strangely locked doors of democracy, were perfect. Because without any
record of what he said, Reid said what every American who is appalled
by the war; guilty as hell it’s being fought in our names with our
paychecks; and more than a little bit scared by the brazenness of the
lies, the willingness to believe them, and the naked thirst for power
that caused it; wishes he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 2, underdog Harry Reid threw an Ali-worthy
right-hand lead, landing out of nowhere, in a startling departure from
his usual rope-a-dope style of Parliamentary brawling. The official
line of response on Wednesday morning was derision. But at the time the
Republicans looked dazed, positively Foreman-esque. Or -- if there’s a
difference -- maybe it was Brett-esque after the Pine Tar Game.

Frist fumed in Reuters, “Never have I been slapped in the face with
such an affront to the leadership of this grand institution.” He fumed
in the Post, “For the next year and a half, I can’t trust Senator Reid.”
Bill Frist: Squawky, second-chair violin who landed the big graduation
solo after the first-chair got busted for smoking pot with the guys
from the chess club, when he could’ve lied to cover for him. You can
count on Bill to barely make all the right noises, except when it
counts.

In The Boston Globe: “There was no discussion with Senator Reid before
he offered the resolution ... Zero.”

Hint: It ain’t about you, Bill. Even the people who hate him are half-
hearted about it. Paraphrasing President Jeff Bridges in The Contender,
Senator Frist is the future of the Republican Party and he always will
be.

AP reported that while Reid spoke, Frist huddled in the back of his
room with a half dozen lieutenants. When a man capable of thought
without consulting opinion polls -- or a creature with instinct --
would’ve either stalked from the chamber or got up and hit back.
Exiting briefly to explain his side of things to the press pack, Frist
concluded his remarks by saying “I’ve got to go figure out what we’re
going to do.”

When you do, Harry and his boys and girls’ll be there waiting.



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