Reid Invokes Nat's Bryce Harper's Quip: 'That's a Clown Question, Bro'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., regularly invokes the name of Washington Nationals baseball player Bryce Harper, but today he took his adoration one step further and quoted the Nats own response to a reporter's question, which has since gone viral.

"That's a clown question, bro," Reid said to a round of laugher, smiling as he delivered the line to a reporter.

Just last week Nats center-fielder and 19-year-old Harper told a Toronto TV reporter "that's a clown question, bro," when he was asked whether he would be taking advantage of the lower drinking age while in Canada. And in the time since, the phrase has quickly caught on inside the Beltway.

It should be noted that the question Reid received today was not a clown question, and the majority leader went on to answer. Moments earlier Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was asked about President Obama's new immigration policy announced last Friday.

McConnell refused to comment on the policy, deferring until the presumed Republican nominee, former Gov. Mitt Romney, made his opinion known first.

"I think we're going to wait and see what Gov. Romney has to say, and then our members are going to be discussing his views on this, and I think many of them will have similar views. Others may not," McConnell said.

Since President Obama's announcement Friday, Romney has repeatedly declined to comment when asked whether he would repeal Obama's policy. He says he would focus on more "long-term" solutions but would not be specific beyond that.

Reid said, in essence, that McConnell should not hold his breath for an answer from Romney.

"I can't imagine that he's going to get an answer very soon," Reid said, "Romney's had four or five days, and he was asked four different times on the Schieffer program ["Face the Nation"] this weekend what he wanted to do, and he wouldn't answer. "

Reid said that given that Romney has been campaigning for a year and a half, "he should have some semblance, idea of what, how, he feels about that."