A pure act of sadism

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008 | 2 a.m.

In a pure act of sadism Tuesday, I sent my e-mail subscribers Hillary Clinton’s answer to a question about whether she would be interested in being Senate majority leader. “Probably not,” she said, not exactly a Shermanesque statement. I wondered why she had not heaped effusive praise on the man who has the job, Nevada’s Harry Reid. All in good fun, right? Better than a jolt of java first thing in the a.m., eh? The reaction was unexpected: My pal Chris Cillizza at The Washington Post penned a dispatch saying I had read too much into HRC’s nondenial denial. Other insiders suggested Reid has more to fear from Chris Dodd or Dick Durbin. Good to know.