As much as he was willing stand up for the right of senior citizens to get the kind of regular emotional boost only Little Caesars coupons provide, he was more than willing to toss the elderly under the bus to try to protect Obamacare from criticism for its broken exchange sites. They’re not broken! People are just stupid!

And when the fight over funding the Affordable Care Act led to the government shutdown 2013, both sides played hardball. A CNN reporter made note of a compromise offered to restore a part of the National Institutes of Health that funds clinical trials for children with cancer. There are a lot of different ways to defend holding the line on negotiations. Reid chose the road much less taken:

Don’t you understand, CNN? Those kids weren’t a voting constituency in Nevada! How stupid are you? So irresponsible!