Updated 3:27 p.m., Nov. 1 | Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may have just unwittingly given Minority Leader McConnell something to smile about.  

“What Joni Ernst would mean, coming to the United States Senate, is that Mitch McConnell would be the leader of the Senate, someone who agrees with her on virtually everything. Think what that would mean to our country,” Reid told progressives Saturday, when asked about Ernst’s chances in the open-seat race in Iowa.  

That sure sounds like Reid believes his Republican leadership counterpart is going to win in Kentucky on Tuesday.  

Reid then reprised familiar lines about the increase in the number of cloture motions and the history of the filibuster.  

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In Kentucky, Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes has given McConnell a race, but the minority leader has been ahead in the bulk of available polling. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a former senator herself, is back in Kentucky Saturday rallying support for Grimes.  

On Saturday afternoon, the Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call moved the Kentucky Senate race in McConnell’s direction to Republican Favored .  

Reid was speaking on a conference call organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee as the group phone banks for Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa. It’s no surprise Reid would be rallying the troops to try to prevent an Ernst victory in this race, rated a Tossup by the Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.  

“If we win Iowa, we’re going to do just fine,” Reid told the liberal activists. “Iowa is a key in what we do. You know, we’re doing really quite well now in New Hampshire. I think we’re going to win in North Carolina. I’m not going to go through all the races. Iowa is critical. There’s no other way to say it.”  

Related:

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