Now that the August recess is over, the Senators have congregated back in Washington to begin their fall session.  The Democrats' feckless leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, took to the floor to describe his time off.  Here's what he had to say:



After a Robert Byrd-esque ode to the desert thunderstorm, he said he went all around his state, and his people complained to him about the high cost of energy (more government needed to regulate and tax oil companies and Halliburton), about the damaging effects of burning fuels on environment (more regulation and taxes on oil companies to stop global warming), about needing more affordable health care (more taxes and government to pay for Hillarycare II, coming soon if the polls are right in November, '08) about tuitions being too high (more government programs needed, paid for by ending tax cuts), and ending the war (cutting and running to appease their fringe base). So in other words, his "people" are telling him exactly the same things he said he would tackle when the Democrats took over the Senate eight months ago.  So if Nevadans are still calling for the same things that Reid and the Democrats were touting as agenda items at the beginning of the year, that tells me they've failed on those five benchmarks.  Maybe we need a new direction in the Senate.  Maybe this failed policy of Democratic leadership should be recognized for what it is and then we can begin with a change in strategy.

A little bit later, however, Reid bore down on Iraq, especially with the news on the surge being what it is, and General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker coming to town in a week.  Here's what Reid had to say about that:



So above all, we need to continue to push for an end to the war.  Senator Reid hopes President Bush's report will finally do the right thing and change the mission and reduce troops...but he says he'll receive the report with an open mind, followed by the death and injured count, and the same tired mantra from the anti-war left.  Note for the record that the fall session is officially 20 minutes old at this point, and Harry Reid has already told a whopper to the American people.  He has absolutely no intention on keeping an open mind to what Petraeus, Crocker and Bush may have to say next week.  His mind is made up.  If Senator Reid were Pharoah, Moses and the Jews would still be stuck in Egypt. 

Then, predictably, Reid used as his new line in the sand from which to declare defeat the meme that there is not enough political progress in Iraq to warrant the continued presence there.  Keep in mind that the surge didn't achieve full strength until June of this year, or roughly four months.  He's right.  Shame on those Iraqis for not fully constituting a new government out of the ashes of generations of brutal dictatorship while simultaneously building and training a military to root out thousands of foreign jihadists and other militant puppets funded by either Saudi or Iranian elements in the last four months. I mean, look what Senator Reid has done in the last four months.  He brought up the immigration bill in the Senate twice...and got his teeth kicked in.  He brought up multiple resolutions to begin precipitously withdrawing troops from Iraq...and got his teeth kicked in.  He did get a minimum wage bill passed, although unlike the Iraqis, he was able to do that without targeted by rogue Shia or Sunni militias in Searchlight, Nevada.  

Should the Iraqis be doing more on the national level to promote reconciliation? Of course.  But it still seems rather silly that the leader of one part of the American national government, one that has had such a lousy list of accomplishments in eight months, can call for a complete democratic political birth in a country still weeding out infested insurgents in half the time he's had to get stuff done.