Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid took his comments about the state of the Democratic primary one step further today, suggesting that he and other prominent Democrats would intervene in the race if primary season concludes without a clear winner:
The dynamics here are interesting. Reid, as Senate Majority Leader, is technically the boss of both Hillary and Obama. He can't tell them what to do, obviously, but he is in a position to hear from around the country, and he is in a position to pressure some superdelegates. Dean, as chair of the DNC, is in an even better position to hear from people around the country, but he's also in a position where he CAN'T put pressure on the supers. What he can do is make it clear that the rules will stay as they are, and that Michigan and Florida will just have to deal with the fact that their gambles to try and win more influence did not pay off.
But Reid and Dean are both men, and, as such, will be perceived by some, particularly some of Hillary's women supporters, as members of the old-boy network squelching a woman's dreams.
Pelosi, on the other hand, is a woman, and if she brings the hammer down, she is not doing it for sexist reasons. Particularly as the first woman to ascend to a position very close to the president, she understands how important it is to women to have a woman president. And she has direct influence over even more superdelegates than Reid.
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