As Taegan Goddard points out, Harry Reid might have stepped on a political landmine by saying something that is clearly true on the floor of the Senate today. Not so hard to make an attack ad out of this.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC211h9AY-4&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Since the start of the recession, payroll employment has fallen 8.4 million, making the 36,000 drop something closer to a leveling out. For more context, the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes:
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for December was revised from
-150,000 to -109,000, and the change for January was revised from -20,000 to
-26,000.
UPDATE: Matt Drudge makes the obvious move. Media Matters comes to Reid’s defense.