I sent this through Harry Reid's website today, and thought I'd share it with you here.

Dear Senator Reid,

You are a fine elder statesman and do a great service to our country and your state.  I honor your  legacy.  I am glad I can write to you to say that your gently assertive, deliberative, and gentlemanly style of leadership has had its place in our government for many years, and still has a vital role to play.  Yet there is vast evidence that your style of governance is a mismatch for the kind of Senate leader we have needed, and will need during the coming years. You may not know this, but you're getting panned out here in the real United States, for your lack of action, for your complacence, ineffective pressure, and unnecessary compromise.

I ask that you remain a vocal and important leader in the Senate, but that you step down from the role of Senate Majority Leader.

The coming years will require swift, brash reforms, ones that will greatly reshape the government, and the public view of it.  Over the next decade, will see a great swell of civic interest, involvement, and scrutiny (something we already see with the current presidential contest).  That means that your back-room style of gentle pressure and secret compromises will come under the microscope, and your culpability in the state of our nation will be uncovered.  In this new era, those types of deals, done far away from the public they affect, will be frowned upon, even if they were "for the best", or "all we could do."

This new era will require those deals to be made publicly, and with the voice of the people behind them.  Think of the changes we've seen in the past five years alone – local campaigns and speeches make the national news, lists of contributors are easy to acquire, and following the money, once impossible, is now commonplace.  Things said in private are regularly leaked.  These are all good things, in my opinion, because they allow a more direct democracy to take place.  We watch because we care, because we want to know, and want to have a claim in what our government does in our name.  

As an adult entering the prime of my life, I feel this country is mine to steward. I, along with many others of my generation, will encourage an upcoming era of transparency and direct change that may seem quite unnatural to you.  This change is occurring now, and it will occur with or without your help.  I ask that you let this happen more rapidly, by stepping down from your leadership role.  

I know you have a difficult job with a fragile majority, but in reality, it is much simpler than you make it: what we need is honesty, transparency, and responsibility – for this war, for our debts, for inaction in the face of dwindling resources, and for this hostile takeover of the executive branch.  I realize that you may be incapable of taking that great step into responsibility and transparency in all your dealings, to be proactive with revealing what you have actually done or not done behind closed doors, which would involve implicating yourself in some of the tragic decisions and votes that have led us to where we are now.  That is why I ask you to step down so this necessary level of healing can begin swiftly, and without sacrificing your good name.

If you do take up this challenge, I ask you to consider who would be your replacement.  Here is my short list of suggestions, in order of my preference:

Joe Biden
Patrick Leahy
Chris Dodd

These fine gentlemen have served our country well, with unrelenting passion for the good of this nation.  And they are all more senior members of the senate than you.  I ask that you do the right thing, and step aside so that the Senate can have a great impact in shaping the nation that I will be living with for the next 50 or more years. Thank you.