A multi-part series chronicling Senator Harry Reid of Nevada at the twilight of his career and facing near certain defeat in 2010

Prologue:

41 years of public life in Nevada and nothing to show for it.

That’s what history will recall about whom I dubbed Senator Cipher in 2005:

ci·pher also cy·pher
n.
1. The mathematical symbol (0) denoting absence of quantity; zero.
2. An Arabic numeral or figure; a number.
3. One having no influence or value; a nonentity.

An entire lifetime of public service, having never held a job in the private sector, also becoming a multi-millionaire along the way via shady land deals, all to get to the achievement he holds today and still, Nevada has nothing to be grateful for or thankful about his ‘service’ to us more than four decades later.

I’m always surprised when a business person or the political classes in Nevada tell me, ‘Oh, what would we do without Harry Reid?’

And I think to myself, ‘are your standards really that low; tell me, what has Harry Reid ever done for Nevada?’ Have they forgotten that Nevada has produced true powerhouse senators like Pat McCarran, Howard Cannon, or Paul Laxalt who had actual achievements and in comparison to Harry Reid, make him look Busch League, rather than Big League?

There is no ‘there’ there with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, and there never was.

I was going to wait until late this year to begin this series about the inconsequential life of Senator Harry Reid, but with the passing of Senator Edward Kennedy, we’ll begin it a bit early and try to cover all of the bases as we continue this series through next year’s election.

In my Kennedy piece on August 26, 2009 referring to Harry Reid, I wrote: ‘The contrast between the two senators is as brutally stark as it gets.’

If you’re from the Democratic Party’s liberal or progressive wings, I can’t see how anything in this man’s entire career has earned your vote, much less your respect. Moderate to conservative members have just slightly more meat on the bone, but as a moderate, I can’t find any compelling reason to cast a vote for this man either, and neither can most people that I know; Senator Harry Reid has lost almost everybody I know personally, professionally, and politically.

If the Republicans fail to put up a credible candidate, I’ll simply skip voting the office. This is the same view I’m hearing from more than 50% of my own party’s voters, and the other 50% have no enthusiasm for him at all.

And you’re reading this from a 30 year veteran partisan Democrat who has sat in leadership positions around the country and who is inclined to forgive sins and sinners within my own party if there’s something of value that I can take to the bank.

The bank is closed however; there was a run on its voters’ goodwill in Nevada toward Senator Harry Reid long ago.

What’s left for Senator Harry Reid is core group of some elderly people, some Gaming and Labor executives, and the people completely dependent on him for his campaign and appropriations largesse.

Regular people with regular problems left Harry Reid and aren’t coming back. He’s never cared about them, so why should they vote for him? I’ve traveled the state in recent months speaking with regular voters and my sense is that Senator Harry Reid will lose badly, and be a substantial drag on the entire Democratic ticket in 2010.

There were some locales where I couldn’t find a single person willing to cast a vote for him, and I was speaking with registered Democrats!

The 41 year look back is cold, barren, and empty. There is so little to show for all these years that it’s sad, bordering on politically pathetic. As I’ve researched this out over that last two years, the recurring theme is that Harry Reid has never had core political principles, any moral compass, any hallmark legislation, or any core beliefs that ever defined him.

Senator Cipher, indeed!

His ambition has never known any boundaries and he set off on getting as much for himself and his family as he could get his hands on. Stepping on anyone and everyone in his way, he was even so bold as to convert himself and his wife to LDS to achieve his goals.  Said one LDS Elder to me, ‘He’s never been one of us.’

That’s very interesting to me because he’s never been one of us either.

We’ll look at labor, the environment, civil and voting rights, womens’ rights, gay rights, families issues, mining, ranching, water, transportation, growth, and many other issues where he has often been on the polar opposite side of conventional Democratic Party positions and policies his entire public life.

I couldn’t even call him a Republican or affix any kind of label to him because he is completely absent anything that would define who he is fundamentally as a man.

I’m puzzled by how someone could be around so long and be so empty-handed this late in the game as his career is coming to an unceremonious ending.

On the biggest issues of the day throughout his 41 years, he has never taken a stand on anything except Yucca Mountain.  It’s not a ‘whichever way the wind is blowing’ political philosophy either; there is no bedrock to him, no foundation, nothing of value because he has no values that voters could reflect upon and draw conclusions either positively or negatively.

Because of that, you have to assess what isn’t as well as what could have and should have been with Senator Harry Reid and Nevada.

I still don’t think he understands the enormous power he has today as SML; he could have loaded up the gravy train for Nevada—each and every one in that position had done so for their home states—and at least we would have something; late in the game, but at least something besides being ranked #50 of 50 consistently in almost everything.

The position of majority leader began in 1913 and was formalized in both parties in 1920, and without question, Senator Harry Reid ranks dead last in either party in this position; no one in the history of the position has had less to show for it than Harry Reid does.

History will not be kind, but I will try to be kinder to him; I almost feel sorry for such a vacant, vacuous, vessel of a man. I wasn’t kidding when I also said in the Kennedy piece that Senator Harry Reid will be forgotten a week after his passing, and although that was an unkind truth, again, he’s earned that all by himself.

Had he asked me, I would have advised him to retire out on top and close out his public life to save the grand illusion he’s created about himself that has no basis in fact or reality.

History is written by history’s winners and all of the campaign donations and fluffy campaign rhetoric, or conversely, the outright threatening all of us as to what will happen without his winning re-election, can’t change the fact that Senator Harry Reid won’t be writing his own epitaph.

Part one is coming up this fall.

Mike Zahara
08302009
www.WatchDogWag.com