Harry Reid's No. 1 Priority Is Harry Reid

A Senate majority leader needs to 'think bigger'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 12, 2009 9:53 AM CST
Harry Reid's No. 1 Priority Is Harry Reid
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in a tough re-election fight.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Senate may be dealing with weighty issues like health care reform, but its majority leader's biggest concern is his own political skin, writes Dana Milbank. Harry Reid's selfish focus on re-election is getting in the way of his larger duties, and it's time Democrats woke up to this reality. Yes, the good citizens of Nevada deserve attention, "but in a nation of 300 million, the Senate majority leader needs to think bigger."

Exhibit A: Reid forced a vote on a public option knowing it would fail, simply to energize his Democratic base back home. He didn't care that the move forced moderates like Blanche Lincoln "to cast a procedural vote in favor of the public option that could prove ruinous to their own careers—and to the party's majority," writes Milbank in the Washington Post. Democrats need a leader who isn't in constant danger of being voted out. Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin top the list.
(More Harry Reid stories.)

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