Regarding Harry

I admit that I’ve been pretty hard on Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV. Part of it is because he represents my state; so naturally, I’m going to be more critical of him than most elsewhere around the country.
But critical as I am of him, I should also be fair when evaluating the current U.S. Senate Majority Leader.
My wife has always held him in high regard. She met him a couple of times when she was advocating for research funding of her chronic illness. He proved to be an effective ally in her fight to see that the condition that afflicts her not only received proper national recognition, but that it was also treated fairly by the feds in appropriations.
Sen. Reid had been a gentleman toward my wife, and for that I thank him for his decorum. He was very helpful to her cause, expressing a willingness to go the extra mile for her.
Of course, all of this was before Harry Reid became a Washington, D.C., power player. This was before he decided that being a career politician, party mouthpiece, and Beltway insider was more important than representing people and advocating for each of our petty individual causes and crusades.
I am convinced that Sen. Reid has been corrupted by the very political machine that he once claimed to stand against. He used to stand on his own and was more independent in his actions. He didn’t always side with his party, and his views were usually more blue-dog conservative and moderate.
But again, this was before Harry Reid began climbing the political ladder. Evidently, he wasn’t content just to be the senior U.S. Senator from Nevada. He wanted more, so he maneuvered himself into being selected as Senate Democrat Minority-Majority Whip and later Minority-Majority Leader.
To be honest, I don’t really know Reid’s motivation for seeking more powerful political positions; but I am certainly free to guess.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps Reid thought he could better serve his state in the senate leadership. But as savvy as Reid has been through his years in Washington, D.C., I find it hard to believe he’d be that naïve.
A politician doesn’t enter party leadership to help his or her constituents. They do so, more often than not, either to help themselves or the party. The motivation is usually more personal and self-aggrandizing.
Why else did Reid work so hard over the past 24 years to get money for the people, enterprises and projects of his state? To please them? Apparently not, or else he wouldn’t have jumped so eagerly into national party leadership like he did.
Sure, he was maneuvering for votes; that’s part of the reason. But I believe the primary reason why Reid has been so good at bringing home the bacon for Nevada is because doing so has propelled his political career. His savvy efforts have ushered him into the national spotlight as the third most powerful politician in the country. I think his motivation is personal and self-aggrandizing; like the rest of us in pursuit of career advancement.
And like the rest of us, Reid has an ego to stroke. Serving his constituents was a means to that end.
He hasn’t secured billions of federal dollars for Nevada just because he cares about us, loves us, and wants to be our friend. He’s done it because it has helped him advance through the ranks of average Washington politicians to the elite.
Sen. Reid is now a member of that exclusive circle of influential power brokers whose single words can affect national policy.
When a politician is elevated to party leadership, the expectation from the party is that it will receive the lion’s share of that politician’s time and energy. The party becomes numero uno; not the constituents.
Case in point: In Reid’s first two years as Senate Majority Leader, he spent (not surprisingly) an inordinate amount of time attacking President Bush and his policies. As minority leader and party whip in the senate, his job was to attack the other party.
This should come as no surprise, because being an attack dog, a stooge and a mouthpiece are what party leadership is all about.
Reid didn’t receive national media attention for anything he did for his state, but for what he said or did on behalf of his party.
Harry Reid has changed…and not necessarily for the better, in my opinion.
Yes, he’s still very effective at bringing home the bacon, securing the pork for Nevada. You’ll get no dispute about that from me. Nobody has delivered or probably ever will deliver pork for Nevada like Harry Reid.
But I’ve said it before and I will say it again: There is much more to representing one’s state in Congress than sending money back home. First and foremost, Congressional U.S. Representatives and Senators must be advocates for their respective states and the people therein. They are to be the voices of the people they represent. That’s what representative democracy and our constitutional republic are all about.
But when an elected representative places the party above the people; seeks approval of party over approval of the electorate; and seeks advancement in party leadership rather than attending to the business they were elected to perform, they are no longer representatives. They are not statesmen anymore.
Rather disappointingly—but painfully true—they become career politicians who are all too often corrupted by a culture and a system that places greater importance on money, power and influence than on humanity and doing the right thing.
Harry Reid has traded in his statesmanship for salesmanship. He’d rather sell party rhetoric than the concerns of his constituents before Congress.
Reid has given up his service as a representative in favor of serving his political party and its powerful national interests. Because Reid chose party politics over the interests of the people of his state, he’s made it quite clear to me that he prefers to be a Washington power broker, who makes deals for money and influence, than a voice for the common Nevadan.
When a representative goes from statesman to politician, in my opinion, they aren’t worth a darn anymore. I don’t care how much pork they secure for my state. A diet rich in bacon, after all, is not very healthy.
I hope Harry Reid is reading this. I hope he takes notice. I hope he takes this criticism to heart. And I hope he realizes what a destructive choice he has made before it’s too late; because on November 3, 2010 it just may well be.