Senator Harry Reid: Hero of the Week

My new hero this week is Minority Leader and Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada). As former Secretary of State Madeline Albright might have said, “He found his cojones.” Sen. Reid used the current Senate rules and procedurally moved that the Senate go into “closed session.” Clearly he wanted to make a bold statement to warn the nation that something has gone far astray in the workings of the Senate. Before he made his motion, Sen. Reid, on the dais in the Senate floor, said that the Republican Senators were beholding to the White House and, sub silentio, there is very little separation-of-powers.

It seems twenty months ago the Democratic Senators were promised by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a full investigation regarding our march to war with Iraq (Phase II). No investigation was forthcoming and the Senators were effectively stonewalled. What broke the camel’s back, however, was when forty Senators wrote President Bush expressing their concerns and requested information. What they received from the White House was not a response from the President as is protocol, but what seemed a form letter from an assistant named Candy Wolf. Talk about stupid moves.

The response from Majority Leader Senator Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) was to throw a hissy fit and told the press he was metaphorically "slapped in the face." Good.

Sen. Reid considers his action today as, "A victory for the American people."