Truth be told, I’ve had thoughts about dumping the Democratic Party Congressional leadership regularly, every waking minute in the case of Steny Hoyer, but I’m beginning to think that Reid may do a passable job of maintaining order in the Democratic caucus, he is is simply hopeless when dealing with opponents of that caucus.

In l’affaire Joe (Lieberman), he collapsed like a bunch of brussel sprouts too overcooked for consumption at a British boarding school, and now he is mishandling the seating of both the Burris (Blagojevich) and Al Franken.

First, we now have his “stand on principle,” followed by statements yesterday that negotiation was possible.

Then we have the reports that he’s having the Senate Parliamentarian reject Burris’s credentials for lack of a Secretary of State signature, which might be inspired, except for the fact, as Majikthise notes, the governor has a stack of papers pre-signed by the SoS for convenience, and may have used one, and that the Illinois Secretary of State has explicitly said that his signature is not required.

Follow this up with a generous dose of credible reports that Reid lobbied Blagojevich against appointing a black man to replace Obama. (Yes, I know, he didn’t, lobby against a black person as Senator, just all the possible black politicians in the state who might have the stature to do this. It’s a distinction without a difference.)

Finally, we have his tactics backfiring against Al Franken, with the Republicans promising a filibuster against seating the Senator-Elect from Minnesota using his arguments.

Also note that any delay in seating either of them makes it more difficult to break a filibuster: 98 Senators means 59 votes (all the Dems + Lieberman + 2 Republicans), 99 Senators means 60 votes, (all the Dems + Lieberman + 2 Republicans), and 100 Senators means 60 votes ((all the Dems + Lieberman + only 1 Republican) to get cloture.

Seriously, I’m beginning to think that he’s moonlighting as Senate Majority Leader, and that his day job is as the coach of the Washington Generals.