Harry Reid’s not a racist; he’s a hack
I’m not particularly interested in the controversy being generated by the supposedly racist comments from Harry Reid quoted in the new book Game Change. It’s just another dopey remark by a politician. But watching the Senator’s response to the brouhaha on the Hugh News reminded me of just what a creepy individual Reid is. He trumpets all his “black friends” – just as people did forty or fifty years ago under similar allegations – and defends himself as a great civil rights advocate by pointing to how he tried to integrate the “gaming industry,” as in, “Some of my best friends are black croupiers.” Yup… as we all know… the Majority Leader of the US Senate’s most significant background seems to be as a staunch supporter of professional gambling.
Now I have nothing against wagering, have even tried it a time or two myself, but for the Majority Leader to cite integrating the gaming industry for his civil rights bona fides is really pathetic sign of the sleazy times in which we live. And it’s typical of the man. For a long while, Reid has been an embarrassment, making back room deals and now leading the charge on health care behind firmly closed (hermetically sealed?) doors. He’s everything we despise about politicians and has always made me think of the G. D. Spradlin character (Senator Pat Geary) in Godfather II. Now he’s something of a joke, but the trouble is the joke is on us. If this man is reelected, it’s a mockery of our democracy.
Almost all Senators remind me of Senator Pat Geary. But we keep on electing them, hair pieces, capped teeth, and all.
Harry Reid appears to have been promised a plum position within the obama administration for pushing healthcare through regardless of public opinion. He and other demos who are retiring may all have the same promise so that they get two additional years after leaving the Senate to continue stealing from the public treasury!
“It’s just another dopey remark by a politician.”
The dopey thing was Harry Reid’s use of the outdated term “negro.” It has for some bizarre reason become a bad word. Supposedly sophisticated people should refrain from using it. Other than that, I completely agree that Barack Obama’s perceive less threatening lighter skin and Harvard dialect helped him win the election. That’s just common sense—and I’m confident Shelby Steele completely agrees with me. Oddly enough, we should be defending Reid in this particular instance.
Our political and legal systems are broken beyond repair, and if Reid and his ilk get their way, so will our economic system. We are staring into the abyss.
Of course he’s a hack. Anyone who watched the movie ‘Casino’ (with DeNiro and Stone) knows that – the movie’s damn near a documentary and the state senator who chaired the committee denying the DeNiro character his gaming license was in real life Harry Reid.
“(Senator Pat Geary) in Godfather II.”
That character in the Godfather movie was indeed a bigot. Don Imus also deserved public rebuke for his disgusting “nappy headed hoes” remark. But we must make distinctions between outright acts of bigotry—and dispassionately objective observations deemed “insensitive” by the political correct establishment. Harry Reid is normally a jerk, but this time he did nothing wrong.
His actions in Congress are more contemptible than any of the stupid things he has uttered – and there have been plenty of those; “this war is lost” for instance.
Whether it is a cake cabinet post, federal prison, or somewhere in between, he needs to go. It’s supposed to be the people of Nevada’s seat, not Bugsy Siegel’s.
Politicians often defend their own with the notion, “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s OUR son of a bitch.” Today the Dems are saying “He may be a moron, but he’s OUR moron.”
Remember Ocean’s Eleven [remake]- ‘A black man can’t even work at a casino … might as well call it White Jack’
Harry Reid is normally a jerk, but this time he did nothing wrong.
Correct. This time he was just innocently dumb. Where he should be held to most strict account is in regard to his despicable slander of Clarence Thomas.
Reid: In that case you had a dissent written by Scalia… Reid’s making empty noises, and dead wrong. Scalia didn’t write a dissent in that case.
and a dissent written by Thomas. There–it’s like looking at an eighth-grade dissertation compared to somebody who just graduated from Harvard. Says Reid. He couldn’t have read actually read Thomas’s dissent, so he just made up a slander about it.
Here’s Thomas’s whole opinion. Reid calls this an “eighth-grade dissertation”? Reid is an illiterate slob.
I join Parts I and III of the Court’s opinion and respectfully dissent from Part II, which holds that §144 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, 7 U.S.C. §7254, “does not clearly express an intent to insulate California’s pricing and pooling laws from a Commerce Clause challenge.” Ante, at 6-7. Although I agree that the Court of Appeals erred in its statutory analysis, I nevertheless would affirm its judgment on this claim because “[t]he negative Commerce Clause has no basis in the text of the Constitution, makes little sense, and has proved virtually unworkable in application,” Camps Newfound/Owatonna, Inc. v. Town of Harrison, 520 U.S. 564, 610 (1997) (Thomas, J., dissenting), and, consequently, cannot serve as a basis for striking down a state statute.
I will correct your last sentence for you:
That the man ever was elected is a mockery of our republic.
There, that reads better, and is more accurate.
Henry Clay was once a big name in politics. He also picked talent, and his pick was Abraham Lincoln. He also “picked” the president in 1824, John Quincy Adams. Even though Andrew Jackson won. So there’s 4 years of the ‘pick’ till the people voted again, in bigger droves. Tossing out John Quincy Adams. And, that “opportunistic line” of aristocrats. While Abraham Lincoln saw the WHIGS dying on the vine. Saw that Henry Clay went from king maker to ‘the guy who crapped out at the table.’ And, bad politics kept following people around until we found ourselves in the midst of a Civil War.
I don’t think the bamster is making a big splash. Pretty much the whole agenda has bit the dust. Except for the headlines. So, what’s missing from the story is what would be reported, if we were getting up to the date news.
Obama’s desk, meanwhile, is full of travel brochures. He’s tired, again. And, he wants a trip that grabs headlines. While Teddy Kennedy only wanted a cure for cancer.
Ahead, some people will get more disappointed than others.
The death of the republic will be giving the benefit of the doubt to totalitarian fools like Harry Reid. Every time he utters an idiotic remark, he should suffer the full penalty his party would exact upon anyone else.
The Republicans/conservatives/libertarians should not be calling for Reid’s head over this.
Freedom of speech should allow people to say things even if they’re stupid. Our response should be something like: “It’s unfortunate that the Democrats have chosen a leader having such outdated views of America and the American people.”
Let the Dems fight each other over political correctness in their language. We should not play that game.
I’m no fan of Senator Reid but he is a Senator from Nevada, a state with no bad opinion of gambling. He’s going to need the casino employee’s votes soon and may be playing to them rather than the country as a whole.
we must make distinctions between outright acts of bigotry—and dispassionately objective observations deemed “insensitive” by the political correct establishment. Harry Reid is normally a jerk, but this time he did nothing wrong.
I’d be a lot more open to this argument, if I did not recall Reid saying that opposition to his healthcare bill was like opposition to ending slavery. By his own standards, the man is a racist.
Mabe you think those standards need to be changed. Good, I agree. But Reid won’t change them as long as they don’t apply to him.
Freedom of speech should allow people to say things even if they’re stupid.
That’s a wonderful standard to have. The trouble is, the standard we actually have is that only Democrats are allowed to say stupid things. And you’re supporting that double standard.
Wasn’t Geary a Senator from Nevada as well?
SteveM #18:
Just because the Dems push a double standard doesn’t mean that we have to accept it. This game of theirs to try to play the racism card is getting old. They’ve used this ploy so liberally that it hardly has any meaning anymore for most people. At this point, someone calling you a racism means little more than saying that they disagree with you but can’t formulate a cogent argument.
If the Dems continue to try to use “racism” as a club politically, they will get absolutely hammered politically in the coming years.
I agree. Reid is a mean little cretin. A true dolt. But I am really starting to believe that so many of these people are just puppets of the interests who buy their offices for them. And how are those offices bought? Commercials, travel, public appearances. Which is to say, the voting public allows itself to be swayed by what the money buys. They say “negative campaiugning works.” Why? Because the voters fall for it. We have dolts in our government representing powerful, sometimes even sinister (Soros), because we allow ourselves to be persuaded by them. The only really interesting political question right now is whether enough Americans will wake from their lazy slumber soon enough to save the country from the Reids and those who pull their strings. These race remark controversies are mere diversions from the truly scary stuff.
Mr. Reid not only assumed he knew what the public thought, his assumption is antiquated and tinged with racism. Simple mind experiment: anyone really think if Barack looked like (the much darker skinned) Denzel Washington that he wouldn’t have been elected? Again, it was entirely racist to consider a “Negro dialect” rather than a speech pattern of the less-educated as something to be avoided. Think Carter or Clinton would have been elected if they sounded like Larry the Cable Guy?
Reid should be seen as the dinosaur he is. No need to resign for being an anachronism. We’ll just trust that the voters of Nevada do what they clearly need to do.
The gaming industry isn’t integrated? Shouldn’t that have happened about 45 years ago? Maybe someone should file an EEO complaint. After all what could it cost? Besides your kneecaps..
This is just another reason why we personally have to consider funding political candidates who are running in a state other than our own. As most of you know, Reid is up for re-election this year in Nevada. Even though I do not live in Nevada, I am contributing to Danny Tarkanian, a Republican who is running against him. Polls show that Reid is in trouble, but he does have a formidable war chest. I have decided that rather than contributing to the Republican Party this year, I will be contributing to credible candidates who are challenging incumbent Democrats who are up for re-election. I urge that all of you consider this approach this year.
10 to 1 that he ultimately pulls a Dodd.
Not sure that’s fair to Geary.
At least he just shook down mobsters…
Just because the Dems push a double standard doesn’t mean that we have to accept it.
If we hold them to one standard and they hold us to another, then we are accepting a double standard. The trouble is not merely that they push a doubles standard, but that we are complicit in it.
If the Dems continue to try to use “racism” as a club politically, they will get absolutely hammered politically in the coming years.
They have been using it as a political club for decades, and the do it because it has worked for them.
Bob — I live in Nevada. Please consider donating to Sue Lowden, who is running for Senate as well (against Tarkanian in primary). She’s smart, tough, and pretty. I’ve met her and she is very impressive in person. Better candidate than Tark.
chrisa798:
Thanks. I have heard of Lowden and know that she too would be a great choice. I will look into her candidacy. I have to say, I would back ANYONE against Reid. I can only hope that the Repubs (in all states)can run honorable primaries and that the losing Repubs in the primaries will back and endorse the winning Repub and will doing everyting they can to help bring about some semblance of balance to our OUT-OF-BALANCE country.
“Correct. This time he was just innocently dumb. Where he should be held to most strict account is in regard to his despicable slander of Clarence Thomas.”
Harry Reid’s disgusting comments about Clarence Thomas were truly despicable—and deserved to be punished severely. In that particular instance, it would have been very appropriate to demand his resignation as Senate majority leader. It’s indeed a double standard. Reid got away with his nonsense because he slimed a conservative.
“..anyone really think if Barack looked like (the much darker skinned) Denzel Washington that he wouldn’t have been elected? Again, it was entirely racist to consider a “Negro dialect”…”
A darker Barack Obama would have been less likely to be victorious on Election Day. The same holds true if he spoke in a so-called Negro dialect. Did I say the world is fair? That’s just cold reality. In the real world, we deal with the human beings we actually have—and not imaginary ones.
Harry Reid is a wizened, Ichabod Crane-like mope who could rise to
power only in the Dem party. I’m sure he has lived his life without
an independent thought intruding into his Parkinsonian cogitations.
As he stands in the Senate, mumbling his partisan thoughts, my
mind sees him as a metaphor for heavily-hawked products……Flowmax,
Aleve, Zoloft, Geritol, Depends…………
C’mon Nevada! Don’t double-down on this fleabag.
I hate to jump in with an off topic comment but did you know that John Quincy Adams was probably the only person of prominence in American history who personally knew the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. JQA was very well acquainted with Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and many others through his father John Adams. JQA also served with Lincoln in the 30th Congress.
It may be more relevant that Reid comes from the only state where prostitution is legal. That may account for his obvious belief that his senate colleagues are for sale. So far, he appears to be right.
“cold reality” is that people such as Oprah and Michael Jordan are seen as colorless by most Americans. It’s attractiveness or charisma (although this one I totally don’t get with Obama – I think he looks quite goofy) that counts. Anyone care to provide some evidence that current Americans reject attractive, dark-skinned black people? There is quite a bit of prima facie evidence that they in fact do not care about skin tone by who is popular and who they will spend money on. Harry Reid’s mind is stuck in the 1950s.
Ward Connerly completely agrees with me:
“For my part, I am having a difficult time determining what it was that Mr. Reid said that was so offensive.
Was it because he suggested that lighter-skinned blacks fare better in American life than their darker brothers and sisters? If so, ask blacks whether they find this to be true. Even the lighter-skinned ones, if they are honest with themselves, will agree that there is a different level of acceptance.
Was it because he used the politically incorrect term “negro”? If so, it should be noted that there are many blacks of my generation who continue to embrace this term. In fact, “negro” is an option along with “black” and “African-American” on the 2010 Census.
Was it because he implied that Mr. Obama might be cut some political slack because of his oratorical skills or his looks? If so, that fact was not harmful to Joe Biden, who was elected vice president after praising Mr. Obama as “articulate” and “clean-looking.”"
http://tinyurl.com/ye9xnda
It should be painfully obvious, that when leftists accuse people of racism, its 99.9% of the time political demagoguery. It should be of no surprise when one of their own – or even someone they don’t consider a political enemy – gets a pass.
The point is not that Senator Smeagol is a racist. The point is the hypocrisy and dishonesty of most Democrats.
America jumped the shark with the ‘election’ of Al Franken – the ‘Caligula’s horse’ of the fall of the American Experiment. Just sayin’…