Partisan rhetoric from Ensign and Reid

Both of Nevada's senators have been in the spotlight spouting their respective party lines this week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters Tuesday that Republicans in the Senate "want President Obama to fail." Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., continues to be a popular cable-news spokesman for his party, telling Fox News today that Obama has a selective memory when it comes to his campaign promises.

Reid, in his comments, didn't specify which of his Senate colleagues he was referring to, saying, "I think it's very clear, as a result of actions since Obama was elected, that people want him to fail."

The accusation echoed the Democratic Party's push to associate Republicans with Rush Limbaugh's unapologetic declaration that he wanted Obama to fail. The party has used it to argue that the GOP is not interested in being constructive.

Ensign, who chairs the Republican Policy Committee, told Fox that the $410 billion omnibus spending bill currently before the Senate is intolerably larded with pork-barrel spending. "How can folks stand up with the president last week at a Fiscal Responsibility Summit and then come forward with this pig of a bill?" he said. "It is absolutely ridiculous and disingenuous."

As majority leader, Reid has been the front man for Senate Democrats for several years now. Ensign's profile seems to be rising by the day, prompting widespread chatter in Nevada, if not in Washington, that he is angling for a spot on a national ticket.