Harry Reid has jumped the shark. And this does not bode well for his hope to make philanthropists Charles and David Koch the main political issue in the Democrats’ campaign to keep hold of the Senate.
How do we know? Not only has Reid’s latest attack backfired, it made him the butt of a “Daily Show” segment Tuesday night.
The segment began with host Jon Stewart noting that Daniel Webster’s reputation for oratory is safe from Harry Reid. The Nevada Democrat had wanted to say the Koch brothers are evil oil industrialists who fund political causes so they can make money.
What came out was footage of an incoherent Reid burbling about how the Koch brothers “own all that stuff up there.”
Stewart then played a clip of an MSNBC correspondent asking Reid to explain why he didn’t object to Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire who promote his causes.
Adelson’s social views were closer to Democrats’ and he wasn’t “in this for the money.”
So an exasperated Stewart asked his “Washington correspondent,” Jason Jones, to explain how Reid can say Adelson money is clean but Koch money dirty.
“What is corruption?” he asked Jones.
“Corruption is a billionaire who spends their money on [bleep] you don’t like,” Jones explained.
Stewart pressed on. “So what is free speech?” he asked. “A billionaire who spends their money on [bleep] you do like.”
When you’re a Democrat and you’ve lost Jon Stewart, it’s probably time to get a new campaign theme.