Two cheers for Harry Reid

By E.J. Dionne Jr.
WashPost
Monday, December 28, 2009

Punditry in the nation's capital has its own rhythms, and one common practice involves almost everyone beating up on the same politician at the same time.

Such assaults are rarely about ideology, though I have found that liberals or Democrats are often the object of these sustained attacks, perhaps because journalists are overly sensitive to charges of liberal bias. There's nothing like hitting a Democrat hard to "prove" impartiality.

For quite a while, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the target of choice. She was cast as a "San Francisco liberal" out of touch with the "real America." Everything about her, from her speaking style (fluid in small groups, stilted with larger crowds) to her taste in clothes (female politicians always face this), became the object of analysis and disparagement.

But the beauty of journalism is that reality eventually has to intrude on analysis. It has become quite clear that Pelosi is far less a "San Francisco liberal" than a "Tommy D'Alesandro Democrat." That would be a reference to her dad, the former mayor of Baltimore, a highly practical local politician more concerned with delivering the goods than with passing ideological litmus tests.

(More here.)