If there’s been a story covered more fervently than the Jets’ quarterback conundrum in the last few days, it is the efforts to find a legislative solution in the House and Senate to stop us from going over the “fiscal cliff.”
The two stories converged on the Senate floor Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, was giving a speech about the lack of leadership on the Republican side in negotiations that began with a meandering section which Sen. Reid used to complaine about the quality of the sports sections in the Washington Post and New York Times. He got around to saying that he likes to follow one football team in particular and he saw parallels between it and the G.O.P.
“And I’ve watched very closely -- it’s not one of my favorite teams, but it’s really, really fun to watch — and that’s the New York Jets, New York Jets, yes, New York Jets. Coach Ryan, he’s got a problem. He has three quarterbacks: [Mark] Sanchez, he’s got Tim Tebow, he’s got a guy by the name of [Greg] McElroy. He can’t decide who their quarterback is going to be,” Reid said, via the Washington Post and Politico. “That’s the same problem the Republicans are having. Romney’s gone, but he’s still in the background. We have [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and we have [Speaker of the House] Boehner. Who is the quarterback, Mr. President? Who is the quarterback?”
Reid’s commitment to his zinger went a bit deeper to his commitment to following the Jets, who named Mark Sanchez their starting quarterback on Wednesday. If he felt like extending the analogy between the team Woody Johnson owns and the party he supports, Reid could appoint Senator Jim DeMint to the role of Fireman Ed after DeMint announced that he’s leaving the Senate to run the Heritage Foundation.
It’s a shame that the late Jack Kemp is no longer in Washington. Then the Jets could send Sanchez down to D.C. to work on the economy while Kemp came back to the NFL. He’d be awfully old but we’re guessing he’d win more than a votes from the Jets faithful.