The Republican machine that savaged Tom Daschle from 2001 until his defeat in November has turned its attention to Harry Reid, the new Democratic leader in the Senate. Here’s the story from Roll Call (via Tapped):

The Republican National Committee is set to begin a prolonged attack against newly installed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) aimed at weakening his support in his home state as well as on the national level.

Drawing on a blueprint used successfully against former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the RNC will send a 13-page research document today to roughly 1 million people — a group that includes journalists, donors and grass-roots activists — detailing Reid’s alleged obstructionism among other topics.

“This is the initial salvo in the upcoming discussion that we are going to be having with Sen. Reid,” said RNC Communications Director Brian Jones.

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman has already done a series of radio interviews in Nevada criticizing Reid. Other events, like a gathering of medical professionals in the Silver State to protest Reid’s stance on medical malpractice reform, are in the works.

“This is a national and local communications strategy that will look to strip the bark off the Senate Minority Leader,” Jones added.

This RNC research document is the first prong of the assault, which Reid denounced yesterday.

For a primer on how these tactics work, see the Spinsanity archive of analysis of attacks on Daschle, as well as Chris Mooney’s American Prospect article on the offensive. Kevin Drum reminded me of the most disturbed attack, which was Rush Limbaugh’s description of Daschle as “El Diablo” (aka the devil). I happened to be listening to Limbaugh that day, so Spinsanity was the first to publicize the attack — see the full transcript of the rant or our original article on it.

In any case, I’m no fan of Harry Reid after working in politics in Nevada, but these sorts of demonization campaigns always turn nasty regardless of whether it’s a Republican (Newt Gingrich) or a Democrat (Daschle) in the crosshairs.