Apparently, Harry Reid no longer gives a fuck. At least, as much as an older, tie-wearing elected official can be said to not give a fuck.
Not that he’s ever been a demure, quiet guy, but the senior senator from Nevada, the leading Democrat in the Senate, has been on a media tear of late. This is due largely to his willingness to accuse Mitt Romney of not having paid taxes for 10 years, knowledge he claims to have gotten from that classic shit-stirrer, Some Guy.
This is an actual photo of Harry Reid in the boxing ring. As far as I know, it was taken this morning.
But it goes further than that. Closer to home, Reid is also coming out swinging on green issues, as befits a former amateur boxer. During an annual clean energy summit he hosts, he called out climate change deniers. WHAM.
These people aren’t just on the other side of this debate. They’re on the other side of reality. It’s time for us all — whether we’re leaders in Washington, members of the media, scientists, academics, environmentalists or utility industry executives — to stop acting like those who ignore the crisis or deny it exists entirely have a valid point of view. They don’t.
And he derided the fantasy of clean coal, calling for the closure of a coal plant near Las Vegas. POW.
“There is no clean coal,” the Senate Democratic leader declared after meeting with several members of the Moapa Band of Paiutes who live near the Reid Gardner station and a handful of representatives of the Sierra Club and Nevada Conservation League who want the plant to close.
“We have to stop further degradation of the land and air as a result of burning coal,” Reid said. “The solution is to close the plant. We want the boilers shut off.”
The cool thing about Hammerin’ Harry taking on fossil fuels and climate deniers is that, unlike his jabs at Romney, these are based in demonstrable fact. Yeah, suckers, the climate is changing. BAP. Coal is killing kids. POP.
Imagine if we had 100 senators fighting this fight? Or, more realistically — imagine if Reid actually kept it up.
