IS it possible to humiliate yourself politically and score a political triumph at the same time? That would seem to violate the laws of physics. Yet that is the story of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's week.
In conventional terms, Reid stage-managed a disaster on Tuesday when he had the Senate stay up all night to debate the Iraq war in preparation for a vote on a bill to start withdrawing troops in three months.
What Reid did came to naught. He failed to get a vote on the bill he wanted. He acted peeved and peevish. He retaliated against those who'd opposed him by refusing to allow a vote on a bill to increase pay for military personnel serving in Iraq, which is politically stupid any way you look at it (not to mention morally questionable).
What's more, Reid handled the whole business like a rank amateur, not like a seasoned politico and parliamentarian, which is what the Senate majority leader is supposed to be.
First he called the all-nighter a "stunt" - not exactly the language you want to use when you're claiming to be focusing on the most important issue of our time.
Second, there were incongruous notes of good cheer and sophomoric excitement amid the supposedly profound sorrow and anger attending the war debate - boxes of pizza filled with yummy cheesy goodness; senators giddily toting their toothbrushes to work; cots delivered so senators could rest in a "nap room."
Reid acted simultaneously as though the all-night talkathon was a college rush party and an incredible hardship on those poor, poor senators.
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