Senator Harry Reid is up for reelection this year and press like this in the Las Vegas Sun can’t help his prospects.

Sen. Harry Reid angered liberals in his party last month as he sought to shield telecom companies from liability for their role in the Bush administration’s domestic spying program.

As the Senate debates the surveillance issue this week, the criticism of Reid shows that his role is putting him at odds with his party’s base.

Reid says he personally opposes immunity for the phone companies that cooperated with the government and prefers stronger civil rights protections for citizens, as provided by one of the bills now before the Senate. But as leader of the Senate, Reid embodies the Democrats’ apparent inability to stop a competing bill that essentially gives the Bush administration authority to continue eavesdropping on Americans and lets the telecoms off the hook.

The article goes on to talk about how Congress watchers are responding and Caroline Fredickson of the ACLU doesn’t pull any punches.

Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington legislative office, said the organization is targeting Reid by name in its materials advocating a tougher bill. “Actions speak louder than words,” she said. “If he really opposes telecom immunity, he needs to show it. And we haven’t seen it.”

Fredrickson said she believes Reid is leading the Democrats in a way that is not only out of step with the party’s base, but with most Americans. The ACLU released a poll this week conducted, incidentally, by Reid’s pollster, Mark Mellman, showing that more than 50 percent of Americans surveyed oppose the immunity provision.

Leadership matters. It’s not just liberal bloggers or professional activists that are watching our representatives in Congress, but people back home – their constituents. Any senator who continues to obstruct a Democratic agenda from adequately moving forward can expect to be met with disapproval from the Democratic base both back home and around the country. With all eyes on the Senate this week, I hope that our leaders start acting like leaders and govern the way the country expects them to govern.