Posted on 04/11/2006 9:11:39 AM PDT by bpjam
I pleasantly surprised, a bit. Nevada is a pretty red state, they went for President Bush in 2000 and 2004. I think Reid sold his soul to be Senate Minority Leader.
Actually, Nevada isn't all that red. Bush outpolled Gore by 50% to 46% and Kerry by 51% to 48%.
I think you are probably right, Reid won't run for re-election. It's also worthy of note, that he was only re-elected in 1998 by 428 votes.
That said, he's got 5 years of his term left. It's not like we are taking the seat anytime soon.
Well aware. That's why it was so sad we didn'get a real challenger in 2004.
That said, I don't think Reid is likely to run again in 2010. 6 years is a long time to be Minority Leader, and he's not exactly a spring chicken (he'll be 70 in 2010 I think).
Yes, Bush took it, but it was very close both times.
IF Reid runs again in 2010, and IF we get a strong challenger, he's certainly vulnerable. But it's important to remember this isn't South Dakota, which went for Bush by 20pts, it went for Bush by 3pts.
At the same time, Navada needs Reid for pork less then South Dakota needed Dashle.
--see post #5--
"Hey, guys... it was a JOKE ! C'mon !" ;-)
Becoming leader makes you flip flop to please the party.
Harry Reid was a staunch illegal alien opponent in 1993 mentioning illegal aliens are draining our social service programs and schools. Now he supports amnesty.
In 1999 he supported Bill Clinton's proposal to put Social Security surplus in the stock market for higher return and needed reform or it will go bankrupt. In 2005 he was adamantly opposed to both.
Supported Iraq WMD weapons claims for years during Clinton administration before Bush and even after invasion. Now calls Bush a liar and should be punished.
Supported votes on all judge nominees during Clinton, then supports filibusters for Bush nominees.
He's still the most powerful man in the Senate right now.
sorry I confused him with mclame....2010
Agreed. Governor Mike O'Callahan, too.
I've always wondered how he weaseled out of military service. At his age, he should have put time in uniform.
John McCain is the most powerful man in the Senate because he can lead legislation for either party. All Harry Reid can do is stop things. If McCain wanted Harry's job, it would be a bloodless coup.
We've started a brushfire behind Harry so he can't retreat back to his former 'conservative' stances. He is now in Tom Daschle land - just waiting for the next election to face the consequences. His political cross-dressing is now center stage and all those people who thought they were voting for a family values Mormon found out that they really just got a plain old political whore who will take any position that helps him increase his standing in D.C.
BUT......his ratings slip here makes it harder and harder for him to do what he is doing there. When the press starts asking him why he is taking this or that stance despite Nevadans being so opposed to it, the issue will be about him. And if Harry IS the issue, we win. Just like it became with Daschole. Look at what they did to Newt and Delay. Payback is a beeotch.
Harry Reid has been in office somewhere in Nevada for 30 years now. He is a Mormon (Vegas being the second most popular city in the US for Mormons) and had a virtually perfect pro-life and pro-NRA record for quite a while before moving into the leadership in his own party. When he ran for the Senate in 1998, both candidates basically conceded that they were both pro-life and agreed not to bring it up during the campaign. HUGE mistake for John Ensign who lost by 428 votes to Reid (but did win 2 years later). Reid ran as a conservative and as somebody whose political power in D.C. would bring home the bacon. And since Vegas is an industry town (gaming/tourism), he didn't get opposed by any of the big industries. And when he came up for re-election this last time, all of the business interests were not planning on risking anything by opposing him so, just like Tom Daschole, he got to skate by so he could keep bringing home the pork.
Harry Reid is on TV now all the time and it is the worst thing that could happen to him and Nevada. Reid is now exposed as being a D.C. liberal while pretending to be a Blue Dog back at home. And thus his approval numbers are off 25% already. The same thing happened to Gary Condit when he suddenly was thrust onto TV and the people in Fresno found out that he wore $1000 suits with french cuffs up on the Hill but wore denim jackets back at home to fit in.
Thanks...but even so, couldn't the rough and tumble Nevada people SEE what a WUSS and GIRLIE-MAN Reid is BEFORE he got elected? He makes my skin crawl.
It came down to interest groups. Mormons are a big chunk of the GOP base and he carried them because he is supposedly Mormon. That, and the usual DNC voter fraud, was the deciding factors. But if Ensign had really, really hit him on the pro-life issue and created some daylight between them it could have taken Harry out of the shadows since Ensign is an evangelical PromiseKeeper kind of guy and he IS the pro-family candidate that Reid has been pretending to be. And, oh yeah, Reids wife in Jewish. She isn't an immigrant from anywhere so his whole made up story about how he changed his mind on immigration because his wife read him the riot act is complete BS. His wife is as waspy as any Kennedy.
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