'Miracle' needed

Washington Times reported Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid raised a few eyebrows yesterday on the Senate floor when he said it would take a "miracle" for Democrats to win enough races next year to take back the Senate. Republicans were delighted by what they called an "admission" from the highest-ranking elected Democrat in the country. "After listening to Senator Reid's political spin about judicial nominees for the last several weeks, it is good to hear him come back to reality -- if even for a brief moment," said Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Senator Reid can do the math: A Democratic Party, plus no ideas, plus obstruction, plus over-the-top partisan rhetoric equals continued minority." But Democrats pointed out that Mr. Reid was making a larger point about the so-called "nuclear option" that Republicans have threatened to use to unclog the filibusters -- that Republicans might one day regret abolishing the filibuster for judicial nominees.

It just shows how stupid Reid is for not taking Frist's offer to guarantee Judicial nominees would not be bottled up in the Judiciary Committee (like happened to Clinton) and would receive an up or down vote in the Senate. He knows the Dems are not going to be able to take back the Senate, but I suspect he still hopes the Dems may win the Presidency sometime in the future.

James Joyner blogged An amusing moment of candor. Reid is certainly correct, though, that a five seat gain is highly unlikely. Look at the 2006 Senate match-ups: More Democrats (15 plus the Jeffords seat) are up for re-election than Republicans (13) and more Democrats are retiring (3 counting Jeffords vice 0 Republicans). And Jon Corzine is almost certainly going to leave to run for governor, adding one open Democratic seat. I'm not familiar enough with the local dynamics in several of the races to make predictions, but there are no Republicans up for re-election who are obviously fighting for their lives other than Rick Santorum. The others are either in very Red states or, like Lincoln Chaffee and Olympia Snowe, quite popular as RINOs in Blue states. By contrast, several of the Democratic seats are vulnerable. Mark Dayton, who declined to run for a second term, will almost certainly be replaced by a Republican, probably Rep. Mark Kennedy. Jim Jeffords was re-elected in 2000 as a Republican, although admittedly a RINO. It's not inconceivable that another Republican could take the seat back now that it's open. In any case, Reid is right.

David Cohen: blogged Here we have the Washington gaffe in its purest form. Senator Reid said what everyone knows to be true but no one would admit.