Before this year's state of the Union speech, few people outside of Nevada had heard of Harry Reid. Although he'd given consistent service as a "favorite son" of southern Nevada, he'd pretty much flown below the radar. Now, Reid's name is prominently displayed as the liberal of liberals in most news media.

The problem with this, is the state that Reid hails from is not, by nature a partisan Democrat state. Much of the state, in fact, has a heavily libertarian flavor, even among those who claim membership in the Democrat or Republican parties. In fact, in much of the desert south part of the state (where Reid hails from), liberals are pretty much eyed with suspicion, given the proximity to California (which is referred to by locals as "the Socialist Republic of California").

So how, then, did Reid, a Democrat, get re-elected? Well, one part of it is his "favorite son" status as the son of a hard rock miner from Searchlight, Nevada. Another key part of it, however, lies in the focus of Reid's 2004 campaign. You see, Reid's slogan was "Independent. Like Nevada". He wanted Nevadans to accept him as a candidate who would work to represent the interests of the state of Nevada, without partisan bias.

Odd, then, that his actions SINCE the election have shown him to be anything but independent. True, many candidates will say anything to get elected, But Reid's favorite son status was easily enough to win. The challenger, Richard Ziser, sis not even enjoy strong support from his own party, and one Republican within the state openly laughed when a reporter asked him about Ziser. Instead, Reid insisted on deceiving his voters into thinking he was something that he quite definitely is not.

Let's hope that another 6 years make Nevada voters a bit wiser. I'm hoping, but not betting on it.