The Senate reconvenes on Monday, and their first order of business is going to be the extension of the unemployment benefits over which Democrats and the White House have been making so much hay over the holidays — never mind that they’re doing so by banging on the deliberately misleading drum of the income inequality to which their own broken policies have only contributed over the past several years. On Face the Nation on Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was there in all of his platitudinal resplendence previewing what I’m sure will be another delightful display of intellectual candor from Democrats desperate to talk about something, anything other than the many and far-reaching failures of ObamaCare so far. The best part? He just pushed the button on the nuclear option and sliced off some of the Senate’s traditional minority rights, but when things don’t go Democrats’ way in the upcoming legislative deliberations, the ongoing gridlock will be one hundred percent the fault of Republicans and their stubborn, spiteful obstructionism. Obviously.

“We cannot have a country that’s paralyzed,” he said, putting the blame at the feet of tea party Republicans in Congress. “I’m not here to badmouth Republicans around the country. I get a lot of support from Republicans in Nevada, always have. They are mainstream Republicans not driven by this craziness we have.”

Reid said he’s not yet thinking about the idea of trying to eliminate filibusters entirely — “We’re not there yet,” he said — but that he thinks Congress will continue to be unproductive until Republicans change their tactics.

“Unless the Republicans in Congress decide they should do something for the American people I’m sorry to say that’s true. The rating in Congress is down. If somebody called me in a poll, I would vote with them,” he said. “This is awful what’s been going on.”