Harry Reid can't play poker...and he's from Nevada. Worse yet, (for him), he's in politics.
Like the folks at Wizbang [2] offered:
Nevadans everywhere must be personally insulted that their own U S Senator can't play poker better than an arrested and handcuffed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Resolutely standing athwart Senate Rule 2 [3], Reid brazenly challenged the appointment of Roland Burris, the Constitution of the United States, the Black Panthers [4], the Congressional Black Caucus [5]...
And we all now know how that turned out, don't we. Blago got his way.
What you have here is a case of a guy who was sorely outplayed in a game of high-stakes political poker.
First, a few things about poker...
First, if you don't know the rules, don't play. Don't even sit down at the table. Reid didn't pay enough attention to the rules, or at least put too much faith in the fact that his opposition would put more stock in "his" reading of the rules than it deserved, (hey, they have lawyers too!). Worse, he let his opponent know that he really didn't know by announcing what he planned to do.
Second, if you don't have any money, don't play. Reid had no chips in this game. Just bad cards. But he bet anyway. He bet his credibility and the public perception of the Senate Democrats (playing with their money too). Worse, he didn't have to. He could have just let the whole thing work itself out and focus on bigger things.
Third, know your opponent. In this case, Blago - a guy that's been playing in the Chicago league of political poker for a while now, (you don't get to be governor there without knowing how to play the game). And Blago figured that if he wasn't going to get anything for that Senate seat, then nobody else would either. So what does he do, he puts the Dems on the spot by having to come out publicly against a minority, (all this against the backdrop of the coming Obama coronation).
Checkmate, game-set-match, fat lady sings, (insert your own metaphor here).
In other words, Reid got beat with the same "joker" the Democrats (and the media) usually play on Republicans when the chips are down - the race card.
You gotta' love the irony.
Better yet, I'm sure there are a lot of other people looking to sit down at Mr. Reid's table and play a hand in the future.
