Memo to Nevada Republicans: Don’t Belittle Harry Reid

(Mark Noonan) – The other day I happened to have the TV on for a moment and on comes the thing we all watch TV for: a Harry Reid campaign ad. It was a stunning admission of political weakness on the part of Reid. What Reid is trying to do with the ad is get us to know some Reid other than the long-standing political barnacle we all want replaced next year.

With this early tip off on the sort of campaign Reid is going to run – ie, he’s going to attempt to run as a DC outsider – the Nevada GOP and varied prospective Senate candidates should have leaped for joy. Clearly, what we need to do is keep reminding Nevadans about the real Reid: the Reid of the past 24 years in the Senate. Unfortunately, someone decided to jump on a trivial part of the ad – Reid’s claim that he was once the victim of an attempted bombing.

To be sure, when I saw that assertion, I sat up and took note, myself. When I was researching Harry Reid for “Caucus of Corruption”, this tidbit of information did not surface. Lots of things did: Reid’s knee-to-groin political tactics; Reid’s land deals; Reid’s pay for play with convicted lobbyist Abramoff’s clients; Reid being lobbied by firms employing his children…but not a peep did I find about Reid being the victim of a bomb attempt. Noting that down, I was going to look in to the matter and determine if there was any truth to the claim.

Turns out there was. Not much to it, but it did happen. This wouldn’t be a problem except that several Republicans – including current front-runner for the GOP Senate nomination Sue Lowden – didn’t do a bit of checking and decided to cast doubt on the claim on the radio, making not just an error, but a recorded error (you know, that Reid can play endlessly in campaign commercials). Reid, I’m certain, would send all those who jumped on this a sincere thank-you note if he could. The last thing Reid wants to run on is his Senate record – here’s a chance for him to run on how mean and insensitive those dirty, old Republicans are.

Fellow Republicans and conservatives, our primary task in 2010 is to send Harry Reid back to Searchlight. Reid wants to deflect attention away from his Senate record and talk about anything else – our job is to make the entire election turn on Reid’s Senate record. We do that, and we’ll win – make silly mistakes and we’ll have six more years of Reid.