Not wild about Harry

I’m not wild about Harry

I’m glad he’s leaving the scene

His tenure was too long

His record was all wrong

What’s more, he was just too mean

With apologies to a great composer of a bygone era, Eubie Blake, whose “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” is a classic of American musicology, this poor parody is all I can muster up in response to the news that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is finally bringing his too-long tenure in the Senate to a close.

{mosads}Reid has come to epitomize everything that is wrong with the Senate (and by extension the House of Representatives) today. He is a “lifer,” with a lifer’s mentality: eyes firmly fixed on the next (re)election, instead of the needs of the people who sent him to Washington. A shameless self-promoter, with an outsize ego even by the standards of the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body,” he leaves a legacy of distrust and disorder likely to remain un-remedied for a generation.

His obstructionism when his Party was in the minority was legendary. As Majority Leader, he rode roughshod over anyone who got in his way, stretched and obliterated long-standing Senate rules of procedure, doing lasting damage to the ability of Republicans and Democrats alike to forge the type of temporary alliances which are at the heart of successful legislation.

Take a walk along the Capitol some day and consider the people for whom the buildings were named. Think about the foresight and character of an Everett Dirksen, a Republican who helped Democrat Lyndon Johnson pass Civil Rights bills, knowing they were unlikely to garner many votes for his Party. Think about the legacy of a Philip Hart, a visionary liberal Democrat whose unfailing courtesy and integrity made it possible for him to reach out and work across the aisle with members of the opposition Party.

I recently read about the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate. There is no irony that it is named for Ted Kennedy. Whatever else he was, Kennedy (D-Mass.) was an effective senator. He may have been ambitious, ruthlessly partisan at times, and a man whose moral failings were all too obvious. But he loved the Senate as an institution, and he stood proudly in the shoes of the Dirksens and the Harts, and so many before them, working with Republicans to pass legislation. One little remembered achievement was the work he did with then Senator Dan Quayle (R-Ind.) on nuclear disarmament issues.

We tend to forget how important the legislative branch is to the proper functioning of our democracy. The type of dysfunction we see today leads directly to the aimlessness of our foreign policy, as well as the divisiveness at home.

Certainly Harry Reid, and certainly the Democrats, are not solely to blame. But Reid bears a large share of the responsibility, and his passing from the political scene is a cause for celebration, not crocodile tears.

Lest these comments be seen as an attack on Democrats, let me also remind readers of another Democrat named Harry, who adopted Eubie Blake’s lyrics as his campaign song: Harry Truman. Truman’s happiest years were not in the White House, which he referred to as “The Great White Jail.” Rather, he absolutely loved the time he spent in the Senate, where he worked with fellow Democrats and with Republicans. He chaired the investigative committee looking into waste and fraud in military contracting and his stewardship was a model of bipartisanship, and for that reason, remarkable effectiveness. That’s a Harry, and a Senate record, we can be wild about.

Haiman is a retired Navy judge and former deputy general counsel for USAID.