Harry Reid has taken some risks when it comes to the fight over the nuclear option, but he’s consistently been successful in a) making Bill Frist look bad; and b) getting his message out.
Tonight, however, Reid will take his communications strategy to a new level. Reid’s office just sent out an alert explaining that Reid will discuss the Dem position tonight in a nationally televised address.
On the eve of the historic vote in the United States Senate, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid will address the nation about the importance of the critical check in our democracy’s system of checks and balances – a Senator’s right to filibuster.
The majority of Americans agree that our Constitutional checks and balances must be preserved, and the independence of our judiciary must be protected. Senators Democrats have worked hard to reach out to their Republican colleagues and to look for compromise to protect the Senate from this abuse of power. With a little more than 24 hours until the historic vote, Senator Reid will discuss the real consequences of this historic vote to the strength of this country and to the daily lives of all Americans. The Alliance for Justice is sponsoring this important address to the nation.
I didn’t see this one coming. When was the last time a Senate Minority Leader delivered an address to the country like this?
It’s scheduled to be a 90-second speech broadcast on CNN at 8pm (Eastern), and on Fox News at 7:50pm (Eastern). Of course, the real advantage of this kind of ahead-of-the-curve tactic is that it’s likely to be aired repeatedly as part of the news cycle.
Frist may try and scramble to counter this, but he’ll be playing catch-up. I don’t know if Reid has the votes or not, but once again, he’s beating Frist at this game. Badly.
Update: I had the times of the broadcast wrong; this version is corrected.