Crush Liberalism

Reid catching "Daschle Syndrome"?

Tom Daschle was once a darling in South Dakota. However, after his rise to the top of his party’s leadership (a party that was hostile to the ways of South Dakotans), the folks back home seemed to think that Dasshole was more of a DC kind of guy and less of a South Dakota fellow. As such, Dasshole was given the George McGovern treatment and given the heave-ho out of South Dakota…and the United States Senate.

Perhaps Harry Reid has caught Dasshole’s disease? From the Las Vegas Sun:

Home not so sweet

As Reid’s power grows in D.C., his support slides in NV

Sen. Harry Reid, once a fairly obscure conservative Democrat from the small state of Nevada, is all the buzz inside the Beltway lately – unfortunately for him, it’s the Washington and not the Las Vegas Beltway.

Reid is praised by his party’s national grass-roots activists for his forceful opposition to the Republican agenda and ability to keep Senate Democrats unified. His opponents concede – occasionally with close-fisted frustration – that he consistently bests his counterpart, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
…
But Reid’s national stature among activist Democrats, concentrated on the blue-state coasts, carries risks for him at home, analysts say. His consistent opposition to President Bush and his need to mollify the liberals in his party is costing him in Nevada, where polls show he has lost support since becoming minority leader.
…
The respect of MoveOn.org’s Matzzie, one of the more influential voices in liberal Washington, may be the ultimate gauge of Reid’s standing among activist Democratic circles these days.
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But it is the adulation of people like Matzzie that also endangers Reid at home. “Absolutely it hurts him at home,” said Eric Herzik, a UNR political scientist. “He has to take up the cause of the most liberal wing of the party.”

Reid is a liberal in a red state, a state that Bush won twice. Some say that Reid won’t run for re-election in 2010, so he can afford to be as liberal as he wants to be. Dasshole didn’t have that luxury.

April 25, 2006 - Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized