He doesn’t care if people erupt because of his incendiary effusions. He doesn’t care if the media like him. He doesn’t care if people think he’s lost it.
In one day (one day!) of interviews in Southern Nevada last week, Reid once again displayed how his lack of a self-editing mechanism implanted in most pols early on results in him making news where others similarly situated would have stuck to bland talking points and rhetorical mush. Love him or hate him, Reid is like the Jim Carrey of DC, endlessly contorting himself and finding new ways to make people laugh or cry – or scream with delight or outrage.
As people wonder whether the 73-year-old majority leader will run again in 2016, Reid may not yet have decided, but I can tell you one thing after a quarter-century as a Reidologist: He doesn’t care what you think, and he’s having the time of his life.
He is like the crazy (or is he?) uncle who comes to the formal family dinner, flouting decorum and spouting truths no one else would dare say. He often comes off as an idiot savant with Tourette Syndrome, more savant than idiot, perhaps, but driving his staff crazy as they listen to him, wondering what they will have to explain or clarify later.
From a morning interview on KNPR, which I have already told you about, to television sitdowns culminating on Vegas PBS, Reid didn’t just make news. He made NEWS, and more of it than most people realize as he compressed his entire Machiavellian, say-anything persona into 12 hours of talking after someone said, “Welcome, Senator Reid.”
He criticized the DOE secretary, called Edward Snowden “a traitor and a bad guy,” defended the NSA, lionized John McCain, made a passionate case for solar power and said Obamacare will lead to single-payer. And more. Much more.
Harry Reid doesn’t care.
He doesn’t care if people erupt because of his incendiary effusions. He doesn’t care if the media like him. He doesn’t care if people think he’s lost it.
In one day (one day!) of interviews in Southern Nevada last week, Reid once again displayed how his lack of a self-editing mechanism implanted in most pols early on results in him making news where others similarly situated would have stuck to bland talking points and rhetorical mush. Love him or hate him, Reid is like the Jim Carrey of DC, endlessly contorting himself and finding new ways to make people laugh or cry – or scream with delight or outrage.
As people wonder whether the 73-year-old majority leader will run again in 2016, Reid may not yet have decided, but I can tell you one thing after a quarter-century as a Reidologist: He doesn’t care what you think, and he’s having the time of his life.
He is like the crazy (or is he?) uncle who comes to the formal family dinner, flouting decorum and spouting truths no one else would dare say. He often comes off as an idiot savant with Tourette Syndrome, more savant than idiot, perhaps, but driving his staff crazy as they listen to him, wondering what they will have to explain or clarify later.
From a morning interview on KNPR, which I have already told you about, to television sitdowns culminating on Vegas PBS, Reid didn’t just make news. He made NEWS, and more of it than most people realize as he compressed his entire Machiavellian, say-anything persona into 12 hours of talking after someone said, “Welcome, Senator Reid.”
He criticized the DOE secretary, called Edward Snowden “a traitor and a bad guy,” defended the NSA, lionized John McCain, made a passionate case for solar power and said Obamacare will lead to single-payer. And more. Much more.
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