The Prince of Thieves : Harry Reid Pushes for Online Gambling

We saw it coming. When Harry Reid scraped by on November 2, having survived a serious challenge by Sharron Angle, it was clear as good glass that the Searchlight Slimer owed somebody...big time. It had to be that way; not even crooked voting machines could fully account for his political survival in 2010.

Now we know who: The big Nevada casino operators.

Not that We the People needed a hub to explain that. When it comes to real power in the desert state known for legalized gambling and crushed dreams, there's not much but the casino industry--certainly nothing to compete with the whistles and bells in in Las Vegas, Loughlin, Reno, etc. Oh, Tonopah once had the Stealth Bomber--its development started there--but long term residents in that high desert town are still ticked about the day the Stealth pulled out and went elsewhere.

So it's no surprise that Hapless Harry would try slicking a bill through the Senate that would allow his home state to cash in on the online gambling craze (which Congress effectively outlawed four years ago). No surprise at all. Nor that he'd try to lame-duck it through before all those meanie conservative Republicans take over the House in January.

No, it's no surprise. It is, however, one more underscoring of Senator Reid's disregard for anything but looking out for Number One.

At a time when there's neither a federal budget in place for the coming year. So, the expense would be borne by the "weakest members of the herd", those who hope to double the rent money and instead lose it all online, back to being homeless? So what? Ho-hum.

You think that's an exaggeration? Really? True story: When Pam and I met in 1996 (in a Tonopah laundromat, as it happened), her companion was a dysfunctional fellow named Richard who did exactly that. Because of what Richard did (used her debit card to take out the cash and then lost all of it at the video poker machines), Pam's rent check bounced. Had she not decided to dump Poor Richard without so much as an Almanac, putting her life in my hands, the two of them would have indeed been evicted from their studio apartment...which Pam had managed to obtain for them after more than two years of homelessness.

That's who will pay the price for Reid's recklessness: The poor, the downtrodden, the drug addicted (Richard was), and the otherwise just plain hopeless among us...plus, of course, their families and--if they have any--friends. In other words, the very people Democrats across the country claim to champion!

Will Reckless Reid somehow succeed, slick this through whilehe's still a limping quacker of a Majority Misleader in the Senate? Not likely, really. Senate Republicans have vowed (in a letter signed by all 42 of 'em) to block all legislation until the Big Two--budget and taxes--are handled. Most likely, his sneak attack is going nowhere...though when it comes to sneak, Horrible Harry is a regular Gollum of a guy, so you never know.

However, regardless of the outcome on this particular issue, Reid has "gone and done it" in one respect for sure...an unintended consequence of his back room wheeling and dealing attempts. That consequence is: It made me think about long term planning for future elections. With a prompt from Fitnezz Jim, I've already set up a hub category for Remember in November 2012, but that's not enough. We need a category for Remember in November 2016 (when Harry Reid next faces reelection at the age of 972, or close to it).

This page will kick that one off.

Then, obviously, as soon as the right inspiration for Remember in November 2014 comes along, slaps me upside the head, we'll set that one up, too.

Who knows? By my 100th birthday, maybe--just maybe--the idea of long term planning will have caught on among conservatives. Progressives have been doing it for nearly a century now; why should they have all the fun?

Remember in November 2016...whether or no Harry Reid succumbs to Alzheimer's first.