Former Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just died.
New Hampshire Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s website said: “Harry Reid was a statesman.” Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., tweeted: “America has lost a true statesman with the passing of Harry Reid.” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., tweeted: “Saddened to learn of the passing of Harry Reid — a statesman, a gentleman and a Democratic institution.”
“Statesman”? Where to start?
After voting for the Iraq War, Reid turned against it and attacked President George W. Bush as a “loser” and a “liar.” He later apologized for the “loser” part but kept “liar” intact. Never mind that Colin Powell, Bush’s secretary of state, later admitted that the intel was wrong but insisted no one lied about it. The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward concurred — bad intel, nobody lied. Reid’s defamation gave energy to the disgraceful bogus narrative that became a partisan chant: “Bush lied. People died.” In 2004, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that three out of four Democrats said Bush either lied or exaggerated what his administration knew about Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. This slur remains an article of faith among Democrats.
When informed of Reid’s impending death, former President Barack Obama wrote, “I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support.” And Obama, in a tough 2012 campaign against Republican nominee Sen. Mitt Romney, might well have been defeated but for the baseless, scurrilous lie, during the campaign, that Reid uttered on the floor of the Senate: “So the word is out that (Romney) has not paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”
Years later Reid admitted he made the charge with no evidence, but told CNN he had no regrets, adding, “Romney didn’t win, did he?” About this blatant lie, even CNN Politics editor Chris Cillizza wrote in 2015: “This all-means-justify-the-ends logic — assuming the end is your desired one — is absolutely toxic for politics and, more importantly, democracy.” Notably, while politicians on both sides of the aisle praised Reid after his death, including Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Romney said nothing.
Then there’s Reid’s stalwart support for and assistance in passing the constitutionally dubious Obamacare, a crowning achievement for those on the Left who call health care insurance “a right.” For those of us who believe in quaint notions of a limited government, restricted by Article 1 Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, it was a gigantic leap forward in expanding the welfare state and federal governmental overreach.
Days before Obamacare passed, with Obama promising that it would “bend the cost curve” and that no one would lose his or her health care insurance, the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Newmark excoriated it in a piece headlined, “The Worst Deal of All Time.” After Obamacare passed, FactCheck.org, citing research by the liberal Urban Institute, estimated the number of those losing their health care insurance at 2.6 million, a number other analysts consider far too low. Reid said: “There’s plenty of horror stories being told. All are untrue, but they’re being told all over America.”
Democratic President Harry Truman said, “Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” About one of Reid’s many ethically dubious, self-enriching Nevada real estate schemes, the liberal Los Angeles Times wrote in 2007: “It is a potential violation of congressional ethics standards for a member to accept anything of value — including a real estate discount — from a person with interest before Congress.” About Reid’s lobbyist sons, whose firms raked in $2 million from “special interests” in need of their dad’s help, the Las Vegas Review Journal in 2010 wrote: “So pervasive are the ties among Reid, members of his family and Nevada’s leading industries and institutions that it’s difficult to find a significant field in which such a relationship does not exist.”
No, calling Reid, a “statesman” is not the same as calling O.J. Simpson, a double murderer who attended the funeral of his butchered-to-death wife, a “grief counselor.” But it’s close.
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. His latest book, “The New Trump Standard,” is available in paperback from Amazon.com and for Nook, Kindle, iBooks and Google Play. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryElder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
“When informed of Reid’s impending death, former President Barack Obama wrote, “I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support.”
Thans, Mr Statesman, for such a great disservice to the country. For the exception of the four years of Trump, the country has been on a downhill spiral ever since. And your successor, Chuckj Schumer, is every bit as reckless and diabolical as you ever were.
No star-studded tribute here, Mr Reid—your Congressional stint was not an honorable one.
Reid has earned the right to have his body be laid in state at the Capitol building,,,,,inside the unscrubbed men’s room where he cut most of his deals. They should put in a gilded Senatorial toilet named after him, to honor where his policies sent most of our tax dollars and aborted babies down while under his leadership. Reid lied, and babies died, about 1000 times more than our casualties in Iraq. His ideology and political machinations set the stage that turned American Healthcare pre-Reid, into American Deathcare post Cuomo, where democrats railed against the accusations that Obamacare Death panels would arise to determine who lives or dies to control spiraling healthcare costs Post Obamacare. Then Cuomo and other Democrat run cities and states proved them all wrong when COVID hit the fan. His Nevada crime family interests were where the Bidens went to school on how to use your Senatorial influence to get rich off the Taxpayers trust gone south. He was no Reid that could bent with the wind, but an America ill wind himself, along the lines of a Democrat Whoopie Cushion that should be used as the Democrat party battle flag with “Don’t Sit on Me” instead of “Don’t tread on me” as their motto.
The only place he needs to ‘rest in piece’ at, is the local GARBAGE DUMP!
Another bites the dust! I wonder if he asked for forgiveness for the damage he has done to America before gasping for his last breath.
No American Statesman,,,more the American Baitsman, Hate man, or Skatesman, now finally reaching his climax as the American dead weight man.
O f course not.
Like he said when confronted over his lies on the Senate floor about whether Mitt Romney paid his income taxes for ten years…
It was a lie. And he knew it.
Because in an interview after the election he was asked about the lie, he replied with a S-eating grin, “It worked, didn’t it?
May his final rewards be worthy of his bitter intentions and lack of integrity.
Pure trash, like most o his fellow Marxists.
IF he tried, i hope the answer he got was “SORRY but you don’t qualify for it”
DINGY HARRY good riddance to very very bad rubbish.
NOW when will biden, harris, pelosi and the rest, BE JOINING HIM!
What celebratory moment ! Although the evil he did can never be undone, we can all glory that another of the dem demon party has taken his rightful, reserved seat in Hell…. Up Close To The Flames !!! May others of his slimy ilk be seated soon…
STARTING with pelosi!
All I can say is why did it take so long?