Blog P.I.

Don’t look now — wait, actually you really should — but Harry Reid’s visit to Daily Kos is going anything but swimmingly, even if it does happen to be raining in the District today. Reid’s posting, at the time of this writing the site’s top-ranked diary, all begins innocuously enough, with the Senate Majority Leader kissing the blogosphere’s ring:

YearlyKos seems so long ago doesn’t it?

Yet it was only five months ago when I asked you for three things:

1.    Call Republicans and their friends in the media on their crass and hypocritical political games
2.    Make it clear where Democrats stand
3.    Never give up

Thank you for doing all of this and more. Because of you, no attack went unanswered. Because of you no lie avoided the truth. Because of you no distortion became a distraction to Democrats.

If the sheer obsequiousness of the post doesn’t make you ill, consider this YouTube video, shot exclusively for the diary:

If there’s anything noteworthy about the content of Reid’s post, it’s that Daily Kos diarists are not allowed to post YouTube videos, and Kos has in the past made a point of not giving politicians special treatment, yet here Reid has somehow obtained permission to post this video in his first-ever diary at Daily Kos. Hmm.

But the fun doesn’t really start until you get into the comments. You don’t have to get very far, either, before you see:

Tough crowd. To be fair, a good number of Kossacks — perhaps even a majority — responded favorably, many even cheered him on (perhaps opening themselves to accusations of obsequiescence) or defended Reid against his detractors. And boy, does he have detractors:

The cult of personality around Harry “Keeping the Powder Dry in Perpetuity” Reid is truly mystifying. No one has betrayed Democratic principles more, yet Kossacks act like he’s Paul Fucking Wellstone.

Not to mention:

And what, Harry, did you do for Dems in CT?

Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.

Remember that the next time to put your hand out for anything from CT Dems.

Hope you and Joe and Bill and Hill and Chuck and Barack and Harold enjoy each other’s company.  Yuck!

And:

we could have unified around a REAL Democrat…NED LAMONT but i think you and others in DC didnt have enough faith is us to deliver the majority

for me THAT is one of the real shames of this election…..that we worked so damn hard to take back control of congress and the people who will benefit from our hard work didnt trust us enough to back our choices for candidates…or our belief in Howard Deans 50 state strategy.

And:

If Reid had done what he had to do he would have brought the full weight of the DC Dem establishment to support the rightful Dem nominee.  Not supporting Lamont is a failed strategy. I don’t give a rats ass about maintaining a relationship with Lieberman because even if nominally he sticks with the Dems, he is still going to stick it TO the Dems when it comes to his positions and votes.

Bullshit that supporting Lamont would not have made a huge impact on Lamont’s chances for today.

That said, Lamont WILL win today.

This, from the “reality-based community”? Credit goes to certain Kossacks, like Big Tent Democrat and cedubose, for trying to keep the peace. And the best line goes to lotlizard:

Ladies, please! Don’t squeeze the Chairman.

But by then, the thread had already been wrecked. And here’s the thing: Joe Lieberman is going to win today, and he’s going to be more powerful than ever before. Lamont will be gone, but Reid will still be the Democrats’ leader. And if this is how his ostensible allies will receive him, why bother?

This isn’t politics. In fact, you could say it’s the opposite: It’s impolitic, and it disregards the fact that, when they’re not out making nice to their various constituencies, politicians tend to hold grudges — more so than most people, even. At this rate, watching the netroots come to terms with the reality of their team handling the responsibilities of political power promises to provide a great deal of inexpensive entertainment.