Gubernatorial candidate unveils plan to paint hundreds of lines across U.S.

• RORY (reid) is running for governor and he has a booklet to prove it. He doesn't say anything significant about how or even if Nevada will have enough money to keep being a state or if we'll just have to dissolve into a post-apocalyptic desert ghetto marked by misery, anarchy and chaos.  But his vision statement is full of maps and graphs indicating that if elected, he intends to cover the United States with a complex web of multi-colored criss-crossing lines. Pretty. By the way, though you would never know it from reading the biography part in his campaign booklet, Rory is actually the son of none other than U.S. Sen. Harry Reid -- I know, you probably thought the same last name was just a coincidence. Rory doesn't make a point of bringing up his famous and powerful dad. Out of modesty.
• Speaking of Harry, he's trying to say less to the press, because when he does speak to them it's always so awkward and awful, reports the Hill.
• That same story finds Sen. John Thune, who is famous for not being Tom Daschle, promoting the conventional media narrative that Reid's problem lies primarily with the fact that Obama's agenda is out of touch with Nevada voters. One's gratitude toward some hick-ass bumpkin from some Dakota or other for telling everyone how the Nevada electorate thinks notwithstanding, this now-prevalent storyline about a presumed disconnect between Nevada voters and Obama's agenda:

a) overlooks the incontrovertible fact that Harry Reid is the least personable politician on the contemporary public stage and maybe in the entire history of the U.S. Senate, and...

b) assumes that Nevada selected Obama over Sarah Palin and that other guy by more than 12 percentage points because voters had been entranced by Obama's Kenyan-Muslim magic spells.

Yes. As a matter of fact I will have much more on this later.

• Harry's engaging personality is on display in this video that his people sent out about how the first day of caving to Olympia Snowe went. It went well! You'll note that Harry insists he will work hard to have a public option in the bill. Unfortunately, he has already assured everyone that he doesn't have any influence on the process. Will he come through? Again, it's fifty-fifty.
• You know, castaway ferret Dawn Gibbons might just let her unbalanced husband keep some of whatever is left of his financial assets in divorce court if Jim Gibbons appointed her to a lucrative job as a United States senator when John Ensign resigns. Just trying to help.

Comments

[dave404]

Michael Steele just wrote me to let me know that "Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, [is] one of the most ruthless liberal partisans in Congress."

[Susan Nunes]

Rory Reid doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected governor, provided Brian Sandoval avoids a major scandal ala Jimbo or Ensign.

I don't know what in the world possessed the younger Reid to run for the office, especially given the fact his dad is running for re-election to the U.S. Senate at the same time and isn't overly popular statewide.

Besides, nepotisms or dynasties in politics don't go over that well with many if not most voters.

Rory Reid is a loser. I wish the Democratic Party fielded a better candidate.

[Nevada Ned]

Many years ago, Nevada was represented in the Senate by Harry Reid and Richard Bryan. At a performance in Washington, the comedian Mark Russell entertained an inside-the-beltway crowd. Mark Russell asked the audience, "Nevada is famous for its colorful characters. So why is it represented by the two most boring Senators in Washington?" The audience roared with laughter, including Bryan and Reid.

Of course, there are far worse things than being accused of being "boring".

Just ask John Ensign!

Or Jim Gibbons!!

Or [fill in favorite scandal-plagued politician here]...

This last item is left as an exercise for the readers. Send in your entry to the Gleaner. The winner gets to look at the Gleaner website for free for two weeks.

[mike sloan]

I am truly amazed at how very knowledge some of you are -- having worked in Washington back as a young men when Senators Bible and Cannon represented Nevada, when Mike Mansfield and then Robert Bird were Majority Leaders,and having spent years thereafter around Senators like Mitchell and Daschle, and Speakers Tip O'Neill and Foley and Majority Leader Dick Gephardt when they when they lead the House, I am so pleased to learn so much from those of you who actually saw or know so little about how Congress works. Let me hasten to add that I had a brief time as a Press Secetary to a U. S. Senator and the rest as a occasional visitor on behalf of the gaming industry and a frequent donor to Democrats for almost 30 years, but even on that fringe, I guess I was blinded from the insights some of you have on how the Congress works. In my humble opinion, based on that knowledge and opportunity to observe, Harry Reid is a very good leader and the best senator this state has been fortunate to have representing it -- but what do I know, I didn't always have the benefit of you folks on the Gleaner to give me the benefit of your experience. Maybe we should consult Senator Richard Bryan, Robert Faiss who worked on the Hill or in the White House for LBJ or others who actually might know what they are talking about when it comes to influence on Capitol Hill -- or maybe we should just listen to folks who don't have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to leadership in the Senate. Or maybe some of you will have your way, and have a basketball coach's son or a former beauty queen, both from the far right, represent us in the Senate, along with Senator Ensign, in the minority party with no seniority. Good thinking by you guys -- I guess I will never be are smart or informed as you are, because I just can't see that being in Nevada's or the nation's best interest.

[Nevada Ned]

Dear Mike Sloan:

Since you have so many years of experience around such powerful Democratic luminaries, I'd like to ask you two questions:

(1) The war in Iraq and Afghanistan, based on lies (Iraq has nuclear weapons!! Saddam Hussein planned the 9/11 attacks!!!), is now in its 6th year. Originally a heavily Republican war, it is now a Democratic war.
Now that Harry Reid and the Democrats control the House, Senate and White House, and have the ability to stop the war by cutting off funds, how much longer will the war last?
(A) Another 6 years
(B) Another 10 years
(C) Another 20 years
(D) Forever
(E) The Democrats will stop this war within 6 months.

(2) Working people in the US are now facing the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression of the 1930's, with real unemployment rates about 20%. How would you rate the Democrats' response to the economic crisis?
(A) Miserably inadequate
(B) Protecting the interests of their campaign contributors
(C) Fronting for lobbyists for the rich and powerful
(D) Clueless
(E) The Democrats will bring unemployment down to 4% within 6 months.

If you answered (E) to both questions, you're a true yellow-dog Democrat, you're very optimistic, and you're probably smoking something illegal.

[mike sloan]

Ned, I am not nearly smart enough to choose among those options because I can't reduce these compex issues to a set of simple mulitple choice answers, but I welcome you informing me of the "correct" answers. I do know that the Great Depression lasted from the last 1920's until WWII and that our nation's experiences with war, much like other countries, demonstrated that it is much harder to get out of a war than to get into one, see WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. And all of the forgoing occurred with Democrats in the White House and most often the Congress as well (And Senator Reid wasn't there so you can't blame him). I just don't thinkg governing can be reduced to multiple choice, simplistic solutions. And I guess I like to think most of the Democrats working on these issues today are trying to solve these problems as best they can as quickly as they can.