What A Surprise.......Harry Reid Is Majority Follower Instead of Leader

That title is what I wrote at the Plumline when I saw Greg Sargent post this:

There’s a choice piece of news buried way at the end of Matt Bai’s big New York Times magazine piece on the White House’s dealings with Congress on health care.

To wit: House Dems are growing increasingly upset with Harry Reid for refusing to meaningfully challenge centrist Dem Senators and allegedly caving to threats of a GOP filibuster on issue after issue:

Some House Democrats I talked to … accuse Reid and his lieutenants of repeatedly placating Republicans to avoid a filibuster, rather than taking a stand on principle now and then. Why not force centrist Democrats to vote against their party and let Republicans filibuster the agenda on national television? What would the voters think then?

And the latest reason for his usual foray into weaknesses?

Apparently some of what’s driving this is Reid’s run for reelection. He has repeatedly shown he’s determined not to be painted by Republicans as too liberal. As a result, he has let Republicans frame the debate on key issues, even though they don’t even have candidate to run against him yet; one example was Reid’s decision to part ways with Obama on the closing of Guantanamo.

And that's why it's more than Reid being a weakling. He is just concerned with himself, and apparently, the dysfunction in Washington D.C.