Just Wild About Harry

Today's fireworks proved who the man and who the mouse is in the Senate. Harry Reid struck without warning and demanded that the American people learn about how their country was taken to war. He had public opinion at his side and he knew he could do it. Plus it's completely within the Senate rules. And most important, it shows the Dems are ready to come out swinging. Bill Frist, sounding like a petulant child, exclaimed "Tom Daschle wouldn't have done this."

No shit. Tom Daschle was an accomodator who rolled over on Iraq when it counted. Harry Reid refused to make the same mistake that has cost the Democrats election after election after election. There's no point in rolling over. There's certainly no votes in it.

And what's more, it worked. It's amazing what you can do if you stand up for yourself. John Thune's victory over Daschle in South Dakota last year may have been the best thing to happen to the Democrats in over a decade.

Here's the other great thing about this from a political standpoint. This particular shutdown was about Iraq. And Phase II of the intelligence investigation will move forward in a bipartisan way. But what this is about just as much as anything else is the nuclear option. With the nomination of Scalito yesterday, we've already heard rumblings of breaking the filibuster. Harry Reid showed that there is plenty an opposition party can do to ensure the rights of the minority in the consensus-building chamber of Congress. There's no chance Fristy and the GOP can pull off the nuclear option. They're tactically outgunned by Sen. Reid. He basically just said "You want a war? Here's a preview." That's hardball politics, friends. And you don't have to endanger national security and leak CIA agent's names to do it.