The Campaign Spot

Which Senator ‘Kissed the TV — Tenderly, Caressing the Screen’?

From Mark Leibovich’s This Town, Chapter 3, describing Election Night 2006, and how Senator Harry Reid responded to CNN’s declaration that Claire McCaskill of Missouri had won her Senate race:

Reid, a man of thoroughgoing cynicism, is nonetheless capable of a boyish hullabaloo at times like this. So what did Harry Reid do to mark this key step in his ascent to Senate majority leader? He rose from the couch and he kissed the TV — tenderly, caressing the screen. And then he sat back down to receive from [Sen. Chuck] Schumer something between a pat on the head and a noogie.

Well, that’s . . . unusual.

Sometimes, Harry Reid just likes to think about what a great kisser that television screen was.

UPDATE: Leibovich mentioned this kiss in a 2006 profile of Reid. Permit me to cynically conclude that had Mitch McConnell or John Boehner done the same, the anecdote would be much more widely repeated in press accounts as a detail that showcases how weird those lawmakers are.

Exit mobile version