Last week, however, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) invited me and a few other columnists to his office to deliver a message: The paralyzed, polarized government is not due to the president’s failure to win friends in Congress. Nor is it because Reid is a “dictator.” In his view, the stalled Senate is the result of an intentional strategy pursued by the Republicans…

“All I want to do is legislate,” an exasperated Reid said. “I don’t know what more we can do.” Pointing to baseball managers who kick the dirt and throw their hats, Reid said Senate Republicans do everything in their power to distract the press and voters from the “harm” they are doing to the Congress and the nation.

Reid, a veteran of 32 years in Congress, said pundits are “living in the past,” if they don’t understand that “the Senate is not like it used to be.” Old tales of how bygone congressional leaders like House Speaker Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) or Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) were able to unite Republicans and Democrats have no relevance to the current situation, he insisted.