The New, "moderate" Senate minority leader

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is the Democrats' choice to replace outgoing Sen. Tom Daschle as minority leader. Despite his modest manner and quiet speaking voice (reminiscent of Daschle), Reid has chosen to escalate the political attacks with a potential Supreme Court nomination in the wings.

Appearing yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Reid was asked about the possibility of either Justice Scalia or Justice Thomas as Chief Justice. Reid has previously expressed cautious support for Scalia, which he repeated yesterday. But he went on to make an unsupported, unchallenged remark about Justice Thomas' ability:

"I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written. I don't--I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice."

An embarrassment? Poorly written opinions? Russert did not follow up asking Reid to name three, two, or even one opinion that Reid thought was "poorly written." These unsupported, unsubstantiated, and, quite frankly, baseless charges do not bode well for the restoration of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill.