If we had an effective opposition party, these types of statements, coupled with the testimony of the victims of ObamaCare, would be distilled into television ads, coordinated internet-based messages. In every debate, townhall meeting, and press conference, Democrat candidates would be called upon to either distance themselves, or justify these types of statements. Every Republican pundit would bring it up at every opportunity, every grassroots movement would be encouraged to help, and every candidate would be encouraged to hammer these statements home. This is what the Democrats would do, and it would be effective. By the end of this campaign, Reid would be as reviled as any man could be.
But we don’t have an effective opposition party. We have McConnell and Boehner.
I would add to your post that if we actually had a free, fair and balanced media Reid would never be able to get away with this kind of prevarication. We know of course if a Republican Senate majority leader demonized for instance the people who came forward to tell a bunch of falsehoods about Mitt Romney, like the nut who claimed Romney is responsible for his wive's death because she had been laid off years before by a Bain-owned company, and called them all liars the media would have savaged him. But without a free and open media all the messaging in the world by Boehner and McConnell wouldn't make a hill of bean's worth of difference since the media will never fact check a Democrat. Sure we can run ads, but a lot of people will tune them out as just being partisan static. Without a credible media culture that would verify the truth of those ads, we'll make little impression on most voters. Not saying it's worth a try, but I just don't think this can all be laid at the feet of the GOP leadership. It probably feels like spitting into the wind to them to try to right the lies told by creeps like Reid.