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Nothing I've heard him say since then makes me think he's a moderate or a friend of anyone in the |
Speak softly and own a big rottweiler.
Posted on 03/02/2005 6:27:20 PM PST by Pikamax
Moderate Reid made a villain by bloggers
In November when it became apparent that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada would become the new Democratic floor leader, his image was one of moderation and cooperation with the opposition.
As assistant Democratic floor leader since 1999, Reid had been below the radar of Washington's poisonous politics. Republicans had long been saying things like this about him: "I wish more Democrats were like Harry Reid. He does bend over backwards from time to time to make things work between the two parties." That was Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah in June 2001.
Liberal activists and Democratic rank and filers were distressed at the thought of Reid as party leader: "Allowing Harry Reid to become Senate Minority Leader would be a sign that the Democratic Party is content to 'stay the course' and lose, and not address the serious concerns of the growing progressive majority," wrote Jan Frel of Alternet, a cooperative of alternative newspapers.
A liberal blog called PressAction.com described Reid as a Republican: "Reid, an admitted friend of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ... His positions on trade, abortion, war, civil liberties, and healthcare mirror the Republicans. In fact, his Republican adversaries adore him for his conservative propensities."
But when Reid became the top senate Democratic leader, he moved into the bull's eye, and left and right went to work on him, Republicans demonizing him, Democrats lionizing him.
Rush Limbaugh in December called Reid "soiled" 13 times in one broadcast (on his Web page, Limbaugh described Reid as "new face/same dirt").
When Reid said he could support conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia but not Justice Clarence Thomas for chief justice because of Thomas's weak legal scholarship, conservatives like columnist Armstrong Williams called Reid a racist: "Has white liberal Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., no sense of decency? The United States now confronts a modern edition of Jim Crow."
At a White House news conference, reporter Jeff Gannon accused Reid of saying people were in soup lines, something Reid never said.
And the increasingly influential bloggers went to work.
At Joeuser.com: "Instead, he (Reid) has decided that he would rather pander to the left than govern for his constituents."
BlogsForBush.com: "I guess becoming leader of the Democrats requires a person to put aside all honor and decency" (by Mark Noonan).
FreeRepublic.com: "Harry Reid Even More Clueless Than We Thought ... Isn't it funny how wild-eyed liberals will brag of their NRA endorsements - just before they have a 'change of heart' and start asking to send storm troopers to get your guns?"
ChronWatch.com: "Lies, Lying Liars, and Harry Reid ... boneheaded foolishness ... Even Harry Reid is not dumb enough to miss this point. So I conclude that he ... is a bald-faced liar... While we're taking about Harry Reid's lies..." (by John Armor).
TheSakeOfArgument.com: "Don't let his subtle demeanor fool you, Senator Harry Reid is the king of smash mouth politics" (by Joe Kelley).
CaptainsQuartersBlog.com: "The only exit strategy acceptable to a nation at war is victory, and after today's win over the Islamofascists, the insistence on retreat from leading Democrats such as Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid reveals them as defeatists and petty ankle-biters."
Polipundit.com: "Will Harry Reid Step Down? ... He also recently gave racist commentary about U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas" (no one can say the bloggers don't take themselves seriously).
One of the creepiest attacks on Reid, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was by Mick Stockinger on Uncorrelated.com: "Faithful Mormons, of which Reid claims to be one of their number, submit for ecclesiastical interviews every two years to determine worthiness to receive a temple recommend. The recommendation allows a member to attend the Mormon temples and participate in the faith's highest rites ... one of the interview questions deals with honesty. To enter the temple you must be honest in all of your dealings with others. As Latter-day Saints we have a sacred obligation to never be deceitful or dishonest. Our basic integrity is at stake when we violate this covenant. Normally, this is a personal evaluation, but Reid's public utterances are so clearly at variance with the truth, that it would be difficult for any ecclesiastical officer familiar with them to countenance an affirmative declaration ... Faith without works is dead Harry, and politically, so are you."
Meanwhile, at the other end of the political spectrum, Democrats who had been lukewarm about Reid in November were stopping just short of proposing sainthood for him by February, and liberal bloggers who had been downright hostile to him were issuing apologies.
DailyKos.com: "Okay, I was more than skeptical. I considered Reid's elevation to Senate Minority Leader to be deeply disconcerting. (I may have used the phrases "GOP-lite" and 'concession Democrat'. Oh, yeah. And 'Reid Sucks'.) ... I didn't know Reid's background. An amateur boxer standing up to Vegas corruption and being targeted for a car bomb. But most importantly, I just didn't know the guy had real b---- and would stand up to the GOP."
So with the revisionism on Reid underway, he gets less able to be a congressional leader every day. As views of him become more and more polarized, his ability to work with Republicans shrinks. Republicans are under more pressure from their base not to work with the newly liberal devil Reid, and Democrats get more irate over the attacks on their mild mannered leader.
"I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport," Clinton aide Vincent Foster wrote of Washington in his 1995 suicide note. It's hard to imagine these days who is suited for public life in Washington.
In the 1950s President Eisenhower owed a good deal of his success to the cooperation of Democrats and their senate leader Lyndon Johnson. In the 1960s President Johnson owed a good deal of his success to the cooperation of Republicans and their senate leader Everett Dirksen.
Sometimes those bipartisan arrangements get too cozy and do not provide the kind of scrutiny of a president and his policies that we need. But today such bipartisan arrangements are simply impossible because Washington politics is so vicious. It's unfortunate that the virtues of both systems can't be achieved.
Myers is a veteran capital reporter. His column, "Against the Grain," appears here on Wednesdays.
They misspelled "asshole".
I never paid much attention to Reid before he was elevated to the position. Nothing I've heard him say since then makes me think he's a moderate or a friend of anyone in the Republican Party.
*
Good line Deb.
I guess this guy missed Reid's reply to GWB's State of the Union Address.
Considering the smears demos put on any conservative nominated for a post, pointing out Harry Reid's arch-liberal record and flip-flopping is not a sin, in fact it's a duty since the press carries the DNC water.
It was a damn fine line.
Worth a bump, even.
Everyone had better understand that, while its a really neat place in its own right, Pahrump, NV has its share of whackos.
Possibly, a few too many Kalifornios have settled there.
He could be even worse than a "true believing" Lefty: A moderate who tossed his principles aside for political gain.
Recall, young Al Gore was actually a moderate before he was bitten by the power bug!
One man is regarded as semi-friendly to Republicans, and lukewarm by Democrats.
Same man ascends to Majority Leader status.
Same man is now regarded as evil by Republicans, and saint by Democrats.
It can't be that the man has changed his public persona. No.
It has to be that everybody else is all of a sudden playing politics, and covering up their real feelings with political cover.
Yeah, THAT's the ticket!
He probably fell into a Reid-induced coma.
The walking cadaver needs to be shown the door in 2006.
yo...liberal scum "objective" reporter...stick around. You may learn something. (Or maybe not)
Nothing I've heard makes him sound the least bit intelligent or politically deft.
Gee, conservatives started criticizing him and liberals started praising him. Is it possible that is because after he became Democrat Minority Leader he turned sharply to the left?
But soft, me thinks bloggery is afoot.
You mean "vicious" as in where a former Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan compares the Republican senate leadership to the Nazis? Oh yeah, I forgot - he's your Grand Kleagle and he's talking about Republicans, so that's not "vicious."
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Nothing I've heard him say since then makes me think he's a moderate or a friend of anyone in the |
Speak softly and own a big rottweiler.
How can anybody stay awake long enough to find out what Harry thinks?
Apparently Mr Myers has NEVER listened to the very liberal/leftist speak. He is "moderate" only in the sense that Hitlery Rotten Klintoon is moderate. Myers is blowing smoke.
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