I searched and actually haven't seen a single mention of the profile of Harry Reid from yesterdays Washington Post Style Section. (Yes, the style section)
A choice quote to tease you:
Michael Green tells an old political joke dating to the tenure of Nevada's exuberant former Sen. Richard Bryan: "Bryan wakes up in the morning wondering how many hands he can shake that day," Green says. "Reid wakes up wondering what enemies he needs to screw today."
The article
More below the fold.
Waking up deciding who he needs to screw that day -- thats the kind of Lyndon Johnson shit I want in a Senate Leader.
But wait there's more:
Reid's strength is the transactional aspect of politics. He is expert at securing commitments, amassing chits, closing gaps. "There are some brilliant people in the Senate who would score 220 on an IQ test but couldn't get two people with the same philosophy to agree on anything,"
Word. Thats what I'm talking about.
Now Reid the person:
Inez Reid was a redhead with few and eventually no teeth. As a teenager, Harry Reid took a job at a gas station and bought her a false set. "It changed her," Reid says of his mother's new teeth. "I mean, you can imagine how good she felt with teeth after all those years?"
Maybe its just me, but I like the idea of a politican, who knows what its like to stuggle, knows whats its like to go with out health and knows what normal Americans deal with.
He cares but he also kicks ass:
"See that knuckle?" Reid says, indicating a flattened area on the back of his right hand. That was from eighth grade, Searchlight Elementary. The teacher's son was in the class, and Reid couldn't stand him. "So once during class I just beat the crap out of him, right in the classroom."
Was the kid hurt?
"Hell, yes, he was hurt," Reid says.
And how does he feel about George Bush:
"Look, the president lied to me, twice," he says, referring to a conversation they had four years ago about a proposed nuclear waste site in Nevada and another, more recently, over judicial nominees. "So he lied to me. What else am I supposed to call him?"
And, by the way: "I'm glad I called Greenspan a political hack," Reid says. "Because that's what he is."
You must read this article.