This revealing and humorous moment comes to us from CBN’s David Brody, via Jeff Dunetz, showcasing the rather unusual thought processes of the current Senate Majority Leader.  Brody asked Harry Reid to name the greatest living Americans in his third question in his Five 4 Friday series of lighthearted interviews with movers and shakers.

Q. Can you think of a greatest living American?

Reid: I’m glad I had the opportunity to know Ted Kennedy.  Whether you agreed with him or not, what a life he led with his two brothers being assassinated, his other brother being killed in World War II.  And Robert Byrd, who just died.  What a, what a — he was in the Congress of the United States for more than 25% of the time that we have been a country.  That’s fairly remarkable.

It may be even more remarkable that Reid apparently can’t comprehend a softball question.  What do these two have in common?  They’re both dead, not living.  What else do they have in common?  Their supposed greatness came from winning elections in safe seats for almost half a century or more.  Byrd’s example is especially notable, as Byrd was a Klan recruiter who used that safe seat to filibuster the Civil Rights Act in the Senate.  Kennedy used his connections and his political power to duck responsibility for a vehicular homicide, and then lived a dissolute life on the grandest of American stages.

Most people would look outside the clubby Senate for a greatest living American anyway, but even if they didn’t, they would be looking for an American that still registers above room temperature.