In the Old West, a “slumber party” meant nobody woke up. For example, “Mean Rogelius Thrompstorm dry-gulched those Triple-Three cowboys and gave them a slumber party they’ll never forget.” These days, the phrase is innocuous. Senator Harry Reid’s the latest to try it. The skinny Nevadan decided he’d let Republicans know who’s in charge and who ought not get uppity with respect to his marching orders from Ãœberkommandant Nancy Pelosi to get the troops out of Iraq, whether that helps the country or not.

Darleen’s Place comments on the latest Democratic Debacle.

Reid tried to treat Republican senators like the hired help. But true to form, if a Democrat can screw the pooch, he will. And he did. Far from joining the Dems’ pre-planned all-night food fight, Reid made a brief appearance and then high-tailed it to his Secret Senatorial Lair to sleep the sleep of the guilty all night while lesser Democrats manned the rails. Of course, Reid said he was behind them. As far behind as he could run. It took intellectually-challenged Barbara Boxer to calm Skinny Harry down on his scheduled 0300 roll call.

Well, with numbers like these, I guess Reid, Boxer and Pelosi et al have to do something to get the ratings up, just like TV shows. How about if a Senator goes into a coma, like on soap operas, or there’s a cliffhanger ending to the current Congressional session, like on a hit TV show? How about Survivor: Congressional Slumber Party, or Lost: The Senate Season?

The whole thing was silly and stupid and doomed to fail. It’s as if Democrats think that because they got the majority they so craved, all gates are open for their agenda. That’s naive, especially for the scores of decades their elected Senators have spent there (largely protecting their salaries), who should understand some basics behind the numbers, 51, 60 and 66. Instead, the Dems got their behinds spanked in the Chamber of Public Opinion.

It’s earmarks like this that frame the Democrat Senators’ pathetic all-night plan, and makes you wonder why on earth any of them have public jobs.

(Not that Republicans deserve a free pass on spending. Not with this clownish elephant copping an attitude over his precious earmark.)

The Democrats are played out. They ought to throw up the sponge and try to get along with Americans and their opinions, before they tossed with the bathwater in 2008: for exceptional stupidity, lack of political gamesmanship, and a tactical approach when strategy is called for.