Who is General Shide?

If the Democrats are interested in making Iraq a central issue in this election, they need to pull Senator Harry Reid off the talk show circuit.

Reid appeared on the venerable News Hour with Jim Lehrer:

JIM LEHRER: Can the Democratic-controlled Senate stop the killing like happened today in Baghdad?

SEN. HARRY REID: It's interesting. We have had, this week, the colonel in charge of Anbar Province say that it's a civil war; it's been lost.

JIM LEHRER: Well, he's actually -- it was an intelligence -- a colonel who is a Marine intelligence officer.

SEN. HARRY REID: And, today, it was backed up by General Shide (ph), who said that he agrees with him. We have heard testimony today...

JIM LEHRER: Who is -- excuse me. Who is General Shide (ph)?

SEN. HARRY REID: He is one of the generals in Iraq who has...

JIM LEHRER: OK.

SEN. HARRY REID: He has three days, and he's getting out of the military. But he was responsible for...

JIM LEHRER: For Anbar?

SEN. HARRY REID: For -- yes.

A General Zilmer said that he did concur with the Marine intelligence officer's assessment concerning al Anbar, the Los Angeles Times. But I can find no General Shide in Iraq. If he's out there, I'd like to see what he said this week.

I've tried a number of different Internet searches for Shide. I've looked at MNF-Iraq's website. CENTCOM. MNF-West (can't find the "leaders" page). I hope Harry Reid did not invent a general. I'm sure he didn't.

Reid also has to be careful that he does not threaten to cut funding to the troops, perhaps the only way the Senate can remove forces from a warzone. To suggest this tactic would shift the political center of gravity. Here's what he said on the same program:

JIM LEHRER: But George W. Bush is still going to be president of the United States. What is a Democratic Senate going to do about all of that?

SEN. HARRY REID: Well, of course, Jim, if we had the majority, we have control of the pocketbook, the purse. That's what our Constitution set up, is that the legislative branch of government controls the money.

And this president, during the last six years, has had a carte blanche with this Republican-dominated Congress. He's gotten everything that he's wanted, except stem cell research, the only thing he's vetoed. He hasn't had to veto anything, because he -- they have given him everything he wanted. We basically haven't had a third branch of government.

Tread carefully, Senator.