Reid criticizes McCain’s temper

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had some of his harshest words yet for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Friday, suggesting his colleague lacks the temperament and judgment to be president.

Reid used time on the Senate floor to talk presidential politics, lumping the GOP nominee together with President Bush and drawing a clear distinction between them and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the Democratic presidential nominee.

{mosads}“Our dangerous world calls for leaders with sound judgment, not those with a temperament prone to recklessness,” Reid said. “Our country deserves more than token shifts and lip service to change. We need to take decisive action to reverse eight years of foreign policy mistakes. That’s exactly what Sen. Obama and Senate Democrats offer.”

A Republican National Committee spokesman called Reid's comments "baseless" and suggested it was carefully choreographed with the Obama campaign.

"The Obama campaign revealed their desperation by using the ‘speed and ferocity’ of Harry Reid to launch baseless personal attacks on a largely deserted Senate floor," said Bill Riggs, an RNC spokesman.

Reid is typically critical of McCain at news conferences and in statements, but the tone of his remarks Friday took the rhetoric to a new level. Reid’s office acknowledged as much, but would not say whether the comments were intended to coincide with a more aggressive tack taken by the Obama campaign.

Reid did not appear to violate a Senate rule against personal attacks on other senators, and no other senators lodged any immediate complaint. The Senate was largely deserted Friday — there were no scheduled votes, and most members were back in their states.

The majority leader’s comment about McCain’s temperament was a reference to the Arizona senator’s occasional, well-publicized shouting matches, often with his own GOP colleagues.

Reid, who traveled to Afghanistan as part of a congressional trip last month, specifically targeted McCain’s support of Bush's policies in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and said Obama’s positions have been proven right.

Obama recently called for U.S. action against al Qaeda in Pakistan, for example, which even the Bush administration has now endorsed, Reid said.

“The Republicans talk a lot about experience. When you’re the author, architect and enabler of eight years of devastating foreign policy mistakes, that’s not experience. It’s very bad judgment,” Reid said.