By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL,Wall Street Journal
Harry is caught between his constituents and Obama’s liberal agenda
In the Aug. 6 edition of the Las Vegas Sun,readers saw an op-ed by Harry Reid. "I have never taken up the Washington hobby of pointing fingers for political gain,"reassured Nevada’s eminently reasonable,bipartisan,four-term senator.
A few hours later,Mr. Reid appeared for the national press,armed with a piece of Astroturf,to berate town-hall protestors as captive to "Internet rumor mongers and insurance rackets."The Republican Party "is run by a talk-show host,"snapped Washington’s eminently angry and partisan majority leader.
Welcome to Mr. Reid’s bipolar world,which isn’t about to fuse any time soon. As a senator up for re-election next year in a swing state that is on the economic ropes and wary of Democrats’liberal plans,Mr. Reid is under pressure from constituents to work with Republicans toward a reasonable agenda. As the public face of the Democratic Senate,Mr. Reid is under pressure from his
liberal wing to tear up the opposition and advance his party’s wild ambitions. Never the two Harry Reids shall meet,as Mr. Reid’s dismal poll numbers are proving.
The Harry Jekyll and Harry Hyde routine has become so pronounced that these days Democrats are worrying if the real concern isn’t Harry Daschle. The former South Dakota senator and Democratic leader also tried this edgy double life,though his constituents got wise to his tendency to put his party’s obstructionist agenda ahead of their interests and threw him out in 2004.