The Battle for Harry Reid's Senate Seat in Nevada

First image from Wikipedia, Second from Tarkanian's Ad

Harry Reid is facing his first real challenge to his Senate seat in a while. The Majority Leader has been one of the primary targets of talk radio, FOX "News" and all that comes with it. This is little different than it was when Tom Daschle was the Democratic Majority Leader several years ago. I hardly knew who Daschle was before I started hearing Republicans trashing him, and sussed out that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh were trashing him daily.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of Reid, even though he is my Senator. I like him better than I like John Ensign, but who doesn't? Reid is far from the uber-lefty liberal he's portrayed to be by the right-wing spin machine. To me, he's just too timid, too soft-spoken, too wimpy. But I don't think his Republican opposition would be an improvement. In fact, I'm sure they wouldn't be. Moreover, if one of his challengers unseats him, we'd be left with a junior Senator and. . .well, John Ensign. Terrific.

I've been seeing the ad at right pop up a lot, strangely enough on liberal blogs. When I first saw it, I just shook my head. Invoking Ronald Reagan--soon to be Saint Ronnie, no doubt--in a 2010 election? I know that Karl Rove has taught Republicans that truth doesn't matter, only perception does. But does anybody remember that Reagan wasn't all that popular toward the end? Anyway, I was surprised to find out that the ad is for one of the Republicans in contention in the primary, Danny Tarkanian. I guess I automatically figured it was a national GOP spot, not a local Nevada candidate.

Tarkanian is a good looking dude, in the Scott Brown mold. He's got a famous name--at least locally--his father having been a UNLV coach, and his mother a local politician. As far as I can tell, he's tried to run for a couple of things and lost each time. Wasn't there a time when running for US Senate only happened after having secured a lower office first? Oh, well, I guess I can't complain about that after my support for Al Franken. Ahem. Moving on.

Tarkanian's opponent in the primary is Sue Lowden. She's more accomplished at actually winning elections, but gives me a Sarah Palin-esque vibe in the interviews I've heard. And she's committed the Cardinal sin of having once liked and voted for Harry Reid. And St. Ronnie has decreed that to be a sin. Or something. Anyway, here is Tarkanian's Reagan ad, if you're interested. Get set to go back into the way-back machine, put on your rose-colored glasses, and dig that Biblical Epic soundtrack!