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Harry Reid, Political Mastermind
Two items, for your enjoyment:
The first, from last autumn, when former Montana Lt. Governor John Bohlinger thought he might run for his state’s senate seat, from Politico on November 12th, 2013:
Former Montana Lt. Gov. John Bohlinger just jumped in the Montana Senate race last week – but he says national Democrats are already trying to push him out.
Foremost among them, according to the Democratic candidate? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
“[Reid] said, you know, ‘John, you know, you’re a nice guy, but we’ve chosen Walsh. We’d like you to drop out. We don’t want to have a primary,’” Bohlinger said, according to local news reports. Bohlinger was referring to current Lt. Gov. John Walsh, the preferred choice of the party to run for the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Max Baucus.
The second — you guessed it — is from today’s NYTimes:
Under pressure from Democrats, Senator John Walsh of Montana, who has served in office for just six months, said on Thursday that he was dropping his election bid, clearing the path for his party to nominate a new candidate.
“I am ending my campaign so that I can focus on fulfilling the responsibility entrusted to me as your U.S. senator,” Mr. Walsh said in a statement to supporters reported by The Billings Gazette. “You deserve someone who will always fight for Montana, and I will.”
His withdrawal from the race comes about two weeks after The New York Times reported that in 2007 Mr. Walsh had plagiarized large sections of the final paper he completed to earn his master’s degree at the prestigious Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.
Look, this could happen to anyone. At the time Harry Reid bigfooted Bohlinger out of the race, no one could have known that Walsh was going to go down in flames.
Still. There’s something deeply healing about a full-on evil belly laugh. And I’m having one right now.
Published in General
It is funny Rob, but after we have a big laugh we might also consider why this plagiarism thing broke.Scuttlebutt has it that Walsh was going to get creamed by his Republican opponent Steve Daines. I wonder whether the Dem national machine didn’t sneak the plagiarism story into the NYT in order to get rid of Walsh. I haven’t heard yet who the Dems plan to offer up, but frankly just about anyone (well, except the fop Bohlinger) would be a better candidate than Walsh (I saw a picture of him and Montana’s other genius senator John Tester walking down the Senate aisle–I was so proud).
Anyway, Daines probably shouldn’t get all yucked up yet. The Dems have some potential candidates who could close the gap with Daines. I guess Schweitzer, himself a grand buffoon, has declined to jump in, but there are plenty of other Ronald McDonalds around.
Harry Reid, worst senator ever, one of the worst politicians in American history.
Poor Walsh’s family. It must have been hurtful to them when Walsh dropped out and didn’t say he wanted to spend more time with them.
This is why Democrats win. They know how to twist arms within their party to keep discipline and win races. Republicans don’t know how to do that.
Reid, the incompetent and obnoxious fool who manages to wreck every political entity he touches…except his own reelection. To borrow a phrase, “Way to go Nevada, way to go.”