Titus said what everyone knows

Dina Titus is the last person I would have expected to channel Dick Cheney.

Like the former vice president, Titus dropped an F-bomb in frank conversation with Democrats. Unlike Cheney, who in 2004 famously urged Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to indulge himself in a physically impossible sex act, Titus directed the profanity at her own party. The Nevada representative, in a closed meeting with fellow House freshmen and Speaker Nancy Pelosi two weeks ago, said Democrats everywhere would be "f---ed" if they didn't learn from this month's loss in the Massachusetts special Senate election.

Unlike Cheney, the Nevada congresswoman apologized for using the naughty word.

That's too bad. Titus should have copied Cheney's response to his own outburst: declare no regrets and remark that the swearing was justified -- and actually felt good.

She cussed to Pelosi's face to make sure the tin-eared, smiling leftist from San Francisco was paying attention.

Somebody give that woman a medal.

Titus said what everyone knows, what anyone who's paying attention to public sentiment has thought or said countless times. She used the word that best describes not only the state of her party and its leadership, but of the economy, of the federal government, of the American Dream.

Americans are furious. F-bomb furious. And they're ready to throw majority Democrats out of office because of it.

If it can happen in Massachusetts, it can happen everywhere.

Titus' remarks were first reported last week by Politico.com in an article that made an allegation far juicier than the obscenity itself. In the same meeting, according to the report, Titus also said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada "is done; he's going to lose" in November.

Politico writers Glenn Thrush and John Bresnahan said the quote was confirmed by three people who were in the room with Titus.

That got Titus a phone call from Don Harry. I would assume Reid first wanted to thank Titus for showing he's not the only member of Nevada's congressional delegation who makes news with his mouth.

Titus denied making any such prediction in the meeting, then sought forgiveness from Reid.

Again, Titus apologized when she shouldn't have. For starters, you don't say you're sorry for saying something you didn't say (supposedly). More importantly, the comments attributed to Titus were right on the money.

Reid has spent millions of dollars on fluffy ads to try to bump his sorry Nevada poll numbers. They're still falling. Reid can't shake the perception that he's no longer a scrappy son of Nevada, but instead a beltway insider who's more concerned with his own power and political legacy than the economic suffering in his home state. He and his supporters boast that no one brings home the bacon like he can, yet Nevada keeps getting shut out of federal largess, whether it's for foreclosure relief, high-speed rail or "green" pork.

Surveys conducted for the Review-Journal by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. have him losing November's election to any one of three unremarkable Republicans who might emerge from a crowded GOP primary.

The Republican field is so weak that Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki appears ready to abandon his re-election bid and take on Sue Lowden, Danny Tarkanian and Sharron Angle for the right to challenge Reid. If he does, that would put Reid behind four potential general election opponents.

In other words, Reid is ... what was that word you used, Dina?

But Titus isn't the only person expressing such doubts (supposedly) about Reid's future. The Democratic Party establishment clearly thinks Reid's days are numbered. They're scrambling to formulate contingency plans in case Reid finally gets the message that he has forever lost Nevada's independent voters, who'll decide the Senate contest one way or another.

In the event Reid drops his bid for a fifth term, and instead decides to retire at the end of this year, Democratic operatives are trying to line up a big name who might be able to keep the seat in their control. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund reported that some Democrats are trying to enlist the retired Richard Bryan, a former Nevada governor and senator, to enter the race as a replacement candidate. Polling has been conducted to determine whether Rep. Shelley Berkley, who is mulling a Senate run against Republican John Ensign in 2012, would be a viable nominee this year.

Who knows, maybe Titus would be asked to step into that void -- it wouldn't be any harder than her own re-election bid against former state Sen. Joe Heck.

Titus has voted with the Pelosi agenda far too often to be able to cast herself as a Blue Dog. Heeding the warning of the Massachusetts vote, the former -- and future?-- UNLV political science professor is going to spend 2010 sprinting to the middle, talking and voting like a fiscal conservative and a social moderate.

But deep down, she knows it's going to take a lot more than that to flip voter sentiment. GOP Rep. Jon Porter did the same thing in 2008, but voters still threw him out in favor of Titus.

If Titus and her fellow Democrats don't get an economic miracle by October, they're ...

You know the word.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.