Friday, August 3, 2012

Harry Reid finally gets tough -- with nobody that matters.



Harry Reid made a little bit of news the other day when he called a fellow Democrat a "treacherous,miserable liar" and "first class rat".

 If one didn't know better one might think he was talking about Barrack Obama. After all wasn't Obama the one who sold out the public option after promising it since 2007 in his campaign speeches, holding one town hall meeting after another promoting it, had the votes in congress to pass it and instead caved in and sold out to the health insurance lobby, dropped it and then lied to everyone when he said " I never campaigned for a public option"? Wasn't it Obama's reneging on that promise the reason the Democrats suffered their worst congressional defeat in 80 years in the 2010 elections?( if you don't think so then you don't know people or politics).

 And wasn't it Obama who lied and reneged four times on his promise to get rid of the Bush tax cuts for the upper 2% income earners, a burden that adds $800 billion a year to the deficit? Or getting rid of Gitmo?

 Didn't Obama get caught lying about NAFTA in Ohio as the cause of high unemployment there and promised to get rid of it if he were elected then sent Autan Goolsbee to the Canadian embassy in Chicago to tell them he was lying about it and not to worry?

 Harry Reid's tough talk could have been about Obama who has lied more than Richard Nixon -- unlike Nixon, lies that didn't break any laws, but did break promises to the people whose votes he wanted. And while Obama's lies arent about covering up criminal wrong doing as was Nixon's, Obama's crime is not what he did to the country but what he could have accomplished and didn't.

 So it wouldn't be out of line to think that when Harry Reid called someone a " treacherous, miserable liar" and " first class rat" he was talking about Obama. Or, heaven forbid, maybe even the Republicans. After all didn't Republicans out and out lie about health care reform repeatedly, lies that were well documented by independent sources like CBS and the Associated Press? And didn't Republicans threaten to violate the constitution by invalidating the full faith and credit of the United States over the debt ceiling by threatening to vote for default?

 All of Harry Reid's epithets and righteous anger could have been directed at both Barrack Obama and the Republicans ( funny isn't it? saying " Barrack Obama and the Republicans"?)

 But that's not who Harry Reid was talking about. He was talking about a Democrat at the NRC named Bill Magwood who he felt double crossed him over the Yucca Mountain project, a proposed nuclear waste dump in Reid's home state of Nevada that Reid says Magwood promised he would oppose then didn't.

 The proposed dump is something that could certainly be used against Reid next time he was up for re-election.And that got Reid really angry. Not Obama's constant sell outs and reneging on promises. Not the Republicans holding the full faith and credit of the United States hostage, or lying about health care reform,or the Republicans having gutted the economy during their 8 years in power. It was a nuclear waste dump in his home state of Nevada over which Reid feels betrayed by a Democratic member of the NRC that got Reid to blow his top.

 "I never had anyone lie to me like that", Reid said of Magwood. Obviously forgetting about all of his face to face meetings with Barrack Obama and his Republican counterparts. Which is why many Democrats feel like for the last four years they have had no leadership, in the White House, the senate or the House. So maybe it would be better for the Democrats and the country if Reid started blowing his top over the waste dump he sees every day in his own backyard. Not in Nevada but in Washington.

NOTE: Maybe Reid was just getting warmed up. He accused Mitt Romney today of not paying taxes for ten years citing a "very credible source" who told him so. The problem is John McCain has come out in response and said that he personally reviewed Romney's tax returns in 2008 when he was considering Romney as a running mate and has said that Reid's assertions arent true. The other can of worms Reid may have opened is that tax returns are confidential so he may be in a position of  having to prove that no one in government committed  a felony by passing along the content of Romney's tax returns and naming his confidential source. Maybe he should have stuck with a nuclear waste dump.It's safer.




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