Politicians, like lawyers which they often are, can opine
about anything at any time.
We can listen to whatever extent we wish, or tune them out,
even if the President is speaking.
The words of Senator Harry Reid are of a unique quality. He can be demagogic. He can be
bombastic. He can be a loose cannon. He borders on mendacious. He substitutes invective for rhetoric and calumny for discourse. Sometimes he emulates Senator Joe McCarthy.
You just never know what will come out of his mouth.
He is also worth listening to because as Senate Majority
Leader he controls the agenda of the Senate and thus the fate of legislation,
and has almost as great a Bully Pulpit as the President.
July 31, 2012 Huffington Post Interview
He heard from
someone who had invested in Bain Capital “Harry, he [Romney] didn’t pay taxes
for ten years.”
July 26, 2012 Huffington Post
He referred to
William Magwood, a Democratic Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as “a
treacherous, miserable liar.”
Comments on the US Olympic outfits:
“I am so upset.
I think the Olympic Committee should be shamed of themselves. I think they
should be embarrassed. I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a
big pile and burn them and start all over again.”
June 19, 2012 Press Conference
A reporter asked Senator Reid “If you have any
intention of bringing the Dream Act to the floor for votes in the next couple
of months to put people on the record?”
Senator Reid: “I
don’t want to answer that question – that’s a clown question bro.”
February 2011 Speech to the Nevada Legislature
“The time
has come for us to outlaw prostitution.”
Statement about Republican opponent Sharron Angle, August 25,
2010
“Sharron
Angle’s rhetoric is irresponsible and over the top. Let me be very clear. While
I may have some differences of opinion with my Republican colleagues in the
Senate, I have never questioned their patriotism.”
Press Conference April 27, 2010 regarding a Republican
filibuster:
“All the talk
of the Republicans about wanting to do something about this bill before it gets
on the floor is really anti-Senate and anti-American.”
February 2010
“More men beat
their wives when they are unemployed. Men, when they are out of work, tend to
become abusive.”
July 2008 chat with reporters on the Energy Bill
Senator Reid
told a reporter she “should watch the (Senate) floor more often …. You might
learn something.”
He asked
another reporter if she spoke “English,” and then said “Turn up your miracle
ear.”
August 2009
He called
opponents of Obamacare “Evil Mongers.”
August 30, 2009
He told an
advertising manager of the Las Vegas Review Tribune at a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon “I hope you go out of business.”
August 2008 comment to Senator Joseph Lieberman
“You know,
Joe, I can’t stand John McCain.”
December 10, 2008 Opening of the Capitol Visitors Center
“In the
summertime, because of the high humidity and how hot it gets here, you could
literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol.”
Private remarks about Senator Obama during the 2008
Democratic primary campaign
He referred to
the Senator as “light-skinned” and he speaks “with no negro accent.”
Congressional Record, December 4, 2007
He said
President Bush “is pulling the strings on the 49 puppets he has here in the
Senate.”
Press Conference, September 7, 2007
General
Petraeus made “a number of statements over the years that have not been proven
to be accurate.”
The Politico, June 14, 2007
He called
General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “incompetent.”
April 2007
“I believe …
that this war (Afghanistan) is lost.”
CNN Inside Politics, March 3, 2005
“I think [Alan Greenspan’s] one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.”
Meet the Press, December 5, 2004
President Bush
is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country.”
He called
Justice Clarence Thomas “an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that
his opinions are poorly written. I don’t think that he’s done a good job as a
Supreme Court Justice.”
Comments to Del Sol High School juniors on May 7, 2005 about
President Bush
“I think this
guy is a loser.”
He continued about African-American California Supreme Court
Justice Janice Rogers Brown
“She is a
woman who wants to take us back to the Civil War days.”
USA Today, March 3, 2003 on then Republican Senate Majority
Leader William Frist
“I’ve
never seen such amateurish leadership.”
Where is the shame?
America deserves better.
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