Harry Reid

How a senator from North Dakota plans to end-run Obama and win approval for the oil sands pipeline

Bloomberg’s Mary Duenwald surveys the scene.

Forget burning bras. Feminists want the right to have facelifts.

Don’t worry, this isn’t a controversy-type post, just a quick look at the apparent ineffectuality of U.S. Senate leader Harry Reid. What has become clear is that nobody trusts Reid to deliver the votes necessary to pass anything, partly because he’s been fairly passive about letting the Republicans filibuster everything (creating what amounts to a supermajority requirement to pass legislation) and partly because he can’t even guarantee that the members of his own caucus won’t join a filibuster. This became clear today when Joe Lieberman, former Democrat who caucuses with his former party, expressed an intent to filibuster a health-care bill with a public option.