Retirement makes sense until Reid tries to explain
If you’ve been even a casual follower of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s remarkable political career, his surprise retirement announcement Friday made plenty of sense.
There were lots of good reasons for him to decide to wrap up more than three decades in Washington, much of that time spent as a formidable player in the pressure cooker of national politics.
Not only had the 75-year-old suffered a serious eye and facial injury earlier this year, but his Democrats were back in the minority in the U.S. Senate. Although it looks like a lot of fun, antagonizing Mitch McConnell has to get old after a couple decades.
The Searchlight native had rung just about every bell possible in American politics. He’d carved his name in the history books in big, fat letters. What did he have left to prove?
He also faced another withering re-election campaign in 2016 with his GOP enemies prepared to dump a pile of money to defeat him. Although he would be challenged by what he called “second-tier candidates” and boasted of having the clearest path to victory since 1992, in the next breath he was saying it was time to go. After five terms in the Senate, he certainly had earned a break from the battle, but since when did the recalcitrant Reid want a peaceful political life?
When Reid elaborated, the confusion really began. His attempt to choreograph the media reaction wound up raising more questions than it answered. Reid said he was retiring, and he wasn’t interested in fielding many inquiries from the press.
Between Reid’s YouTube statement, a surface-skimming sidebar in The New York Times and his appearance on “KNPR’s State of Nevada” radio show, we learned all he believed we needed to know about his motivations for closing up shop.
Reid was retiring. What made perfect sense in concept, suddenly made no sense at all.
It wasn’t his health, he said. Despite that brutal eye injury, Reid said he’s already walking one hour per day and expects to be back to his old exercising self in a few weeks. In fact, the longtime fitness fanatic made it clear in the radio interview that he’d just pulled an all-nighter over the budget.
And it wasn’t his status in the minority. Although a few of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate would have liked to see him step aside, he assured skeptics his leadership position was secure. He was always better fighting as an underdog, anyway.
As for the 2016 re-election, Reid swore there was nothing to fear despite the Koch brothers’ millions and a slate of mostly second-string challengers. He’s not exactly the king of the landslide election on his best day. He did, however, note that it didn’t seem fair to “soak up” all that campaign cash on a re-election that can now be devoted to re-electing senators in key states.
Although he didn’t say it, leaving the stage might help Nevada Democrats dodge some of the heat that surely would have beaten down if he’d stayed on the ticket. The heavily monied attempt by America’s conservative oligarchs to take over Nevada can’t possibly be as much fun with Reid in retirement.
With the announcement, Reid made fools of the experts who believed he’d have to be “carried out feet first” from the floor of the Senate before he’d leave on his own terms. But that would be just like him.
One by one, Reid shot down the valid reasons for stepping down and replaced them with sports-page metaphors.
“When I was a boy, I dreamed of being an athlete,” he said. “I listened to those baseball games on the radio, and I envisioned myself as a man out in center field in Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park in Boston. But the joy I’ve gotten with the work that I’ve done for the people of the state of Nevada has been just as fulfilling as if I had played center field at Yankee Stadium.”
On the radio program he discounted a list of possible factors in his decision-making process and offered, “I don’t want to be a pinch hitter. I don’t want to be a 45-year-old designated hitter. I want to go out at the top of my game. I have 22 months left. I have a lot of work to do. And I’ll do everything I can during that 22 months to take care of the state of Nevada.”
Who knows, maybe the old Searchlight slugger will get a baseball glove as a retirement gift.
John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.