Forget Harry Reid's response to Bush's speech. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah, he hit the right notes. Yeah, yeah, yeah ... all that and more.
But flying under the radar as far as I can tell from a quick search of recent diaries, is the fact that Reid pulled a masterful piece of Machiavellian statecraft this afternoon by recommending four Republican senators - Lindsey Graham, Mel Martinez, Mike DeWine and Mike Crapo - as possible nominees for the Supreme Court.
To me, Reid performed a preemptive strike on the obstructionist charge by proactively suggesting four acceptable GOP nominees. This is a strategy of beauty, in my eyes. He's not suggesting any wild-eyed soft "leftie" candidates - he's offering up the names of Republican stalwarts and signaling the Democrats can live with them.
Of course, these four are probably too sane to even be considered by the Bush administration. But that's okay. Reid is going to reap credit for going with the flow and recommending Republicans - preemptively.
Gotta love it.