I’ve been frustrated and disappointed and generally unhappy with Harry Reid over the years, but readng this on Christmas morning made me stop and reflect:
The majority leader, who was re-elected after a hard-fought campaign in November, also reflected on the serious car accident his wife Linda suffered earlier this year, in which she broke her neck. “She never asked for any sympathy or special attention, and I didn’t give her a lot, because I was stuck here,” Reid said. “But she never complained.”
I had forgotten about Linda Reid’s serious car accident. Harry Reid and his family have been through a lot this year and they have come out of it successful and healthy. I’d like to express my gratitude to them for everything they sacrificed to push through the most progressive agenda since The Great Society.
Scholars and pundits of all political persuasions agree that the 111th Congress has been the most productive the country has seen since at least the “Great Society” years of 1960s, if not ever.
The lion’s share of the credit goes to Reid, who as majority leader in the Senate was the ultimate stopgap: If he could find a way around blocks, filibusters and changing majorities, bills passed; if he couldn’t, they died.
“If we had accomplished in any prior Congress that I’ve been involved in 10 percent of what we were able to do this Congress, we’d be celebrating by turning back flips,” Reid said in his office on Wednesday, barely an hour after the Senate had ratified the New Start treaty with Russia, its last major piece of work before breaking for the holidays.
But they did leave us wanting more. No?
