How Harry Reid may help the GOP win back the Senate

[Valin]

Washington Post:

Marc A. Thiessen

1/6/14

 

Harry Reids decision to pull the trigger on the nuclear option in the fall may end up producing some unexpected fallout for Democrats next fall: the loss of their Senate majority.

 

Reid sowed the seeds of his own destruction by changing the calculus in the 2014 midterm elections. Before Reid went nuclear, tea party challengers and their supporters (this columnist included) could correctly argue that winning the majority really did not matter. Since the GOP needed 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster something that was clearly out of reach why not gamble and challenge the establishment? The GOP had gone astray when it came to fiscal responsibility, and a Republican reformation was more important than a Republican restoration. To paraphrase former senator Jim DeMint, better to elect 30 true conservatives than compromise for a powerless moderate majority.

 

That rationale disappeared when Reid invoked the nuclear option. Now winning the majority really does matter.

 

(Snip)