HARRY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Harry Reid is retiring, opening a Senate seat in Nevada, a great GOP opportunity.  From the Washington Times: 

Sen. Harry Reid announced Friday morning he will retire at the end of this Congress, ending a tremendously influential career that has reshaped the Senate he served for five terms.

Mr. Reid faced a tricky re-election in Nevada, where he barely survived five years ago, and said he feared another battle would suck up so much money and attention from Democratic candidates in other states that it could harm his party’s chances of retaking control of the Senate.

He was seen as one of two incumbent Democrats most in danger of losing re-election next year, in a cycle where Senate Republicans face far more trouble, and his decision will help his party campaign committees dole out money more easily without having to worry about defending their chief.

“We have to make sure that the Democrats take control of the Senate again. And I feel it is inappropriate for me to soak up all those resources on me when I could be devoting those resources to the caucus, and that’s what I intend to do,” he said in a statement that he posted online.

Mr. Reid is currently minority leader, after having served eight years as majority leader, from 2007 through early this year. In his previous two years, he oversaw tremendous changes in the Senate, putting the venerable tool of the filibuster on a path to extinction and limiting fellow senators’ ability to offer and vote on amendments.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who has served as Mr. Reid’s GOP foil for all of those years, attributed the GOP’s surge to retake control of Congress in last year’s elections as partly a rejection of Mr. Reid.

COMMENT:  I'd imagine, but cannot prove, that the real reason for Reid's withdrawal is private polling that might show that he could not win another election.  Now the Republicans must choose a first-class candidate.

Within the Senate, the battle now begins for Reid's successor.  The leading contenders are Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chuck Schumer of New York.  I wouldn't want my daughter marrying either of them, but Schumer is the more talented, and the one more likely to take on Democratic extremism, which is why Durbin will probably win.

March 27, 2015