Ralston said in an early morning Flash that it’s likely the end of a beautiful friendship, and I quite agree.

And it’s all because of Sharron Angle.

You know how our good Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign have that decade-long gentleman’s agreement (aka non-aggression pact)(<— the photo there is worth the click-thru) not to go after one another?

This is surely the beginning of the end of that beautiful friendship.

You read that right, Dear Readers.

After calling Angle’s positions too “rigid” and declining to endorse her in June, Barbara Vucanovich, the godmother of the Nevada GOP, received a phone call from Senator Ensign. He proceeded to persuade her to meet with Angle to give her some feedback (i.e. that Angle ought to soften up her views).  As Vucanovich told Ralston:

“John said, ‘You need to tell her that. We need to defeat Harry Reid,’” Vucanovich told me…

Read the rest of Ralston’s story (good stuff, including some rather pointed remarks by our former senator about Angle), but the thrust of my post here is this:

No way, no how, is Harry Reid going to let this one slide.  I predict gloves off, Dear Readers.  Whether later this year when that ethics investigation heats up (wait for it in September/October) or when Ensign is running in 2012 (should he survive that long, which I doubt), there is going to be payback.  And how.

As an aside, all primary season we talked about whether Republican candidates in Nevada would or would not want the scandal-tainted John Ensign to “help” them (which might hurt them) during the general election.  Sharron Angle last year said she didn’t really relish the idea of assistance from Ensign, but then softened her position (she seems to be getting good at that) in a recent interview.

In this case, Angle got Ensign’s help whether she wanted it or not, and – ironically – it’s probably going to cost Ensign a lot more than it costs her.