New gaffes just ‘Harry being Harry’?

The increased frequency of bizarre statements from Sen. Harry Reid makes a reasonable person more than wonder.

There's no question Sen. Reid has lost a step over the years. He'll soon be 71 years old. He suffered a mini-stroke five years ago.

Now let me be clear: None of that necessarily disqualifies him from serving another term. With luck and health, the early 70s are not particularly old in this day and age. And because I disclosed to readers a couple of weeks ago my own two major surgeries this summer, I'll be the last one to argue that a medical condition automatically disqualifies anyone from future tasks.

Nevertheless, Sen. Reid's public conduct remains the talk of the state: What's going on with Harry and his inappropriate comments? Where is his filter? Has he lost his "inner voice"?

His fans say this is just "Harry being Harry." He's always been socially stiff, and during the campaign his penchant for verbal blunders worsens. It's an odd defense for a guy who is an attorney by trade and an experienced politician at the highest levels of government. He's spent a lifetime in the public eye, given thousands of speeches, attended countless chicken dinners and fielded tough questions from the local and national media. Yet, for all that experience, his public propriety seems in decline.

Besides prompting "What's wrong?" whispers, his recent behavior draws renewed attention to the way he handled his hospitalization.

According to Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, he suffered a transient ischemic attack -- commonly referred to as a TIA or a mini-stroke -- at his Searchlight home on Aug. 16, 2005, a Tuesday. He was then taken to a Las Vegas hospital, where his stay was kept secret until his office issued a press release on Friday.

I'm not sure how such a high-profile guy checked in to a busy hospital on an emergency basis and kept his presence secret that long, but he did. Asked about the delay in disclosing the hospitalization, his staff said the senator wanted all of the tests completed before going public.

News reports pointed out that a TIA is no small matter. It is considered a "critical harbinger of impending stroke." But by the time the public knew anything of the senator's hospitalization, his staff was telling us that Sen. Reid was A-OK, that he suffered no side effects and he would need no further medical follow-up.

Pressed on that remarkable prognosis, Sen. Reid's office declined to disclose the names of the Las Vegas doctors who treated him.

At the time, reporters in Nevada and Washington raised questions about how Reid handled the event. Stuart Rothenberg of The Washington Post said it was not a good idea to wait before disclosing the problem: "This is not one of those Third World regimes where they hide what the leader is doing. I think he was trying to protect himself, and when you do that, it makes people wonder if something bigger is going on than a mild stroke."

Five years later, Sen. Reid, for all his public experience, has become less circumspect in public, and it is noticeable. The Christian Science Monitor last week wrote a national political piece on Harry Reid's 10 biggest gaffes.

These inexplicable bursts of impropriety by Sen. Reid the past few years range from calling Capitol tourists smelly, to describing President Obama as having "no Negro dialect," to saying "Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good," to calling the Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware "my pet."

But we only need go back a few days to clearly underscore the point. At a fundraiser in New York, Harry introduced 43-year-old New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as the "hottest member" of the Senate, much to the embarrassment of Gillibrand and all in attendance.

A Reid supporter for the umpteenth time articulated the party line to explain the Gillibrand episode: You "got to love Harry -- always one quote away from blowing himself up."

But honestly, in that or almost any context, blurting out loud that a young woman's body makes her the "hottest member" of the Senate is pretty far over the socially-awkward-old-man line, isn't it?

It's time to stop buying the "Harry being Harry" explanation.

Sherman Frederick (sfrederick@ reviewjournal.com) is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media.