Former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is calling for Mitt Romney to run for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination, at the expense of President Trump. The two make a perfect pair: Reid will say and do almost anything in the pursuit of partisan politics and Romney will say and do almost anything in the pursuit of his own personal political advancement.
Several news reports on the endorsement have mentioned a whopper of a smear Reid made against Romney in 2012, when Romney was a GOP presidential nominee. Reid stated that Romney had paid no taxes for ten years. Even after this bald-faced lie was easily refuted, Reid refused to back down one bit. In 2015, while looking back on the incident, Reid even seemed proud of what he'd done. "Well, they can call it whatever they want. Um… Romney didn't win, did he?” he told CNN in an interview.
While that says all you need to know about Reid's personal integrity, of more interest is what Reid's newfound love for Romney reveals about the phony game the red-blue uniparty played at the expense of the American people for far too long.
Harry (Hearts) Mitt
Back in 2012, Harry Reid was painting Mitt Romney as a radical who posed a dangerous threat to established American institutions. Now, he sees Romney as "a moderate voice the Republicans need," as he told Nevada Public Radio in an interview.
Reid did everything he could to tie Romney to the Tea Party rebellion – unfortunately for them both, that turned out to be merely a prelude to the grassroots Trump tsunami that finally capsized the establishment political con game. "Senate Democrats are committed to defending the middle class, and we will do everything in our power to defend them against Mitt Romney’s Tea Party agenda," Reid said back in 2012, apparently with a straight face.
But today, Reid says, "I think that he would be a great foil against Trump, and I think that Republicans may even allow him to be nominated to be the Republican nominee. That would be good for the country."
Swamp Solidarity
What's changed since 2012? An authentic change candidate has become president, and a committed establishment hack is now propping up his fellow Swamp comrade across the aisle in an attempt to get the old political charade rolling again.
What he will really be is the Swamp Senate leader for the red team.
“It was a time in the country that [voters] were looking for something different,” Reid sadly reflected on the American people's rejection of his cozy political coterie, during his radio interview. "And believe me, they got something different with Trump."
Reid would welcome a Romney ride to the establishment's rescue, to restore his idea of "normalcy" to American politics. Of course, this is the same Mitt Romney of whom Reid once said:
"[H]ere's a man who doesn't know who he is … He was for gay marriage when he was governor, now he's against it. He was for abortion when he was governor, now he’s against it. Oh, health care: We modeled our (federal health care reform) bill to be to a large degree about what he did in Massachusetts. Now he's trying to run from that.
If someone doesn't know who they are, they shouldn't be president of the United States."
None of that apparently matters anymore, if it ever truly did. Chameleon Romney is now positioning himself as a man of rare principle vowing to stand up against Trump's excesses. What he will really be is the Swamp Senate leader for the red team. This is why Reid is endorsing him. All those harsh words from 2012 were indeed made in a very real attempt to win a contested election. But beyond the political scoreboard, there never was any substantial difference between the opposing teams.
Harry Reid may have no ethics and Mitt Romney may have no character. But they both have one fervent desire: to piece back together a uniparty monopoly that Donald Trump convincingly swept aside with his White House victory.
