Why this is a priority for him at a moment when he’s supposed to be arm-wrestling with Boehner over how to keep the government up and running, I haven’t the slightest idea. But then, that’s Reid for you: If he’s willing to spend nine months on ObamaCare when voters are desperate for action on the economy, why wouldn’t he carve out some time for this?

Alternate headline: “Beta males lose last reason to visit Nevada.”

“Nevada needs to be known as the first place for innovation and investment – not as the last place where prostitution is still legal,” Reid said at the state capitol in Carson City, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. “When the nation thinks about Nevada, it should think about the world’s newest ideas and newest careers – not about its oldest profession.”

“We should do everything we can to make sure the world holds Nevada in the same high regard you and I do,” he added. “If we want to attract business to Nevada that puts people back to work, the time has come for us to outlaw prostitution.”

Former Nevada lieutenant governor and assemblyman, Reid told the story of how he recently met with a group of businessmen who were interested in opening up a data storage facility in Storey County, which already is home to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center. But one businessman was incredulous that one of the biggest businesses in the county was a brothel.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, local lawmakers weren’t thrilled at the sight of the U.S. Senate majority leader strolling into the chamber to lecture them on an issue that pales in significance to the state’s crushing unemployment rate (the highest in America) and massive deficit. As for his anecdote about businessmen passing on Nevada due to the brothels, the current lieutenant governor claims he’s never had someone tell him that before. And I believe him: Remember, for most of the past two decades, Nevada was the fastest-growing state in the U.S. It crashed horribly after the financial crisis, but prostitution’s been tolerated outside the cities since its earliest days. If the brothels are chasing people away, how to explain that phenomenal growth during the 1990s and most of the last decade?

There’s obviously an agenda at work in him taking up this issue now. Any Nevadans who follow local politics willing/able to clue us in? Does he owe some interest group a favor for helping him beat Angle? Click the image to watch.