Michelle Nunn tried once again to work her way out of offering an answer on whether she will support Harry Reid in his leadership position if elected to the Senate, and appears to be improving on her earlier efforts. In last night’s Senate debate, Nunn insists that her father and George H. W.Bush have been stronger influences on her than Harry Reid, whom she claims tried to keep her from running at all. She then attacks David Perdue, who actually answered the question by declaring that he wouldn’t vote for Mitch McConnell, for not being honest in his response — despite Nunn talking for two minutes without actually answering the question. Talk about chutzpah.
Nunn provides a two-minute demonstration of the old adage — if you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, baffle ’em with bull (via Jeff Dunetz):
It’s not a terribly serious question, of course. Unlike in the House, the leadership positions are chosen by each caucus. The Speaker of the House has to win a majority of all Representatives; the Senate Majority Leader only has to win a majority of his or her own caucus. Nunn could easily say, “I won’t vote for Harry Reid as leader” and mean it; that won’t keep him from winning the post anyway, and Reid would be the first to congratulate her for tossing him under the bus to win an election. Curiously, Nunn has steadfastly refused to specify that, which strongly suggests that she’s planning on voting for Reid but doesn’t want to admit it, “points of light” notwithstanding.
The real question will be whether Democrats or Republicans win control of the Senate, and that’s another point on which Nunn offers more fog than light. The best way to keep Reid from being Senate Majority Leader and controlling the upper chamber’s agenda is to make sure Republicans win control of the Senate — and the best way to do that is to make sure Nunn loses to Perdue.
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