Hardball Harry

Must be that time of the millennium in which Harry Reid locates his spinal column and uses it, because today he gave the Senate equivalent of Sean Connery's famous "Chicago Way" speech in The Untouchables as Exra Klein points out:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appeared before the Judiciary Committee today in an unusual capacity: as a witness. He was there to argue that the Senate should repeal the insurance industry's exemption from anti-trust statutes (an exemption that they share only with Major League Baseball). "Insurance companies have become so large they dominate entire regions of the country," Reid said. "They have become so powerful they block start-up businesses from entering the market, and they put smaller companies out of business. They have become so dominant that they dictate business practices. They are so influential that they exert tremendous influence over public policy.”

But Reid isn't an expert on anti-trust law, and as Senate Majority Leader, he doesn't spur legislative action by testifying before Senate Committees. He was really there to send a clear and unmistakable signal to the insurance industry in the aftermath of Monday's assault on health-care reform: Attack us, and we'll hurt you. Badly.

In other words, this:

Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Reid? Good, because you just took one.

P.S. Olympia Snowe is not President. She's not even a Democrat. She certainly does not have the best interests of the Democratic Party at heart. Keep that in mind, eh?

[UPDATE 10:25 PM] And it didn't take Harry more than a couple hours to puss out and say that the public option is not in his hands.

Speaking to reporters just outside the Senate chamber this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scoffed at the suggestion--articulated last night by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)--that the public option is simply in his hands.

"He would rather say anything so it wasn't up to him," Reid said, before departing for a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chris Dodd (D-CT). The four will hold the first meeting about how to shape a health care bill that will soon be introduced on the Senate floor.

Yeah, there's f'ckin leadership in action, right there.

Meanwhile President Snowe is not interested in any public option compromises, period.

"The public option would be problematic," Snowe told MSNBC's Morning Joe when asked what changes to the bill could cost Democrats her vote. "As I've said I'm against a public option because I think the government would be another vast new bureaucracy, and also create a disproportionate advantage in the marketplace. And inevitably government's not going to do it better."

So glad America and the Democrats nominated President Snowe, and we should be grateful that the future of your heath care rests with making her happy.

All snark aside, call her bluff. I'm betting she's not going to risk being the one person that kills health care. The problem is she's betting she'll have a lot of ConservaDem help in killing the plan.