Lead or get out of the way

As majority party leader in the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid should be a leader. Reid seemed to be anything but that during negotiations over the fiscal cliff.

Instead, reporting by The Wall Street Journal reveals, Reid did little more than ignore efforts by Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to cobble together a deal to avoid the cliff. McConnell finally grew tired of Reid’s slow-footing and placed a call to Vice President Joe Biden. “Does anyone down there know how to cut a deal?” McConnell asked.

The Journal said the two men subsequently talked 15 times during the next day-and-a-half, ultimately producing a plan in which neither side got exactly what it wanted.

Of course Reid has become rather adept at doing nothing: The Senate he controls has failed to produce a budget in more than three years.

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