Once more I have to delay my Global Warming post. This time it's due to the inane comments of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat-NV). In my experience, when liberals start crying racism, it's because they have run out of any legitimate arguments. Today, Harry Reid attempted to call Republicans racist because they oppose Reid's 2,000+ page (and multi-Trillion dollar) health care bill. Reid said:
This comment appears to be a reference to history. Harry Reid either believes no-one will look it up, or no one remembers what he's talking about. Here are the two possible cases Reid may be speaking about.
First, he could have been speaking of Strom Thurmond's unsuccessful filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond, who was a Democrat at the time, was defeated by Republicans. Perhaps Reid isn't much of a history student and instead was discussing the debate of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This would be particularly troublesome because the opposition to this bill was again led by Democrats. Even more embarrassing is that one of the most adamant opponents of the Civil Rights Act was Ku Klux Klansman, future Democrat Majority Leader, and current Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd. Byrd serves alongside Reid today. Jonathan Leaf, writing on the filibuster of 1964 says:
Reid should pay more attention to history, and not throw about labels that could be more accurately directed at his own party. The American public, and the voters of Nevada, don't want this health care bill. Reid can try to dance around the issue by smearing Republicans as racist while plugging his ears and ignoring the wishes of his own constituents. At the end of the day, this bill will hurt our economy far more than it will help it. On some level, Reid knows the dangers of this bill, and he knows it is unpopular. That's why he has resorted to calling Republicans racists when his arguments could easily be directed at his own party.
Instead of insulting Republicans, maybe Reid should try to listen to them.
Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' If you think you've heard these same excuses before, you're right... When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today.
This comment appears to be a reference to history. Harry Reid either believes no-one will look it up, or no one remembers what he's talking about. Here are the two possible cases Reid may be speaking about.
First, he could have been speaking of Strom Thurmond's unsuccessful filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Thurmond, who was a Democrat at the time, was defeated by Republicans. Perhaps Reid isn't much of a history student and instead was discussing the debate of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This would be particularly troublesome because the opposition to this bill was again led by Democrats. Even more embarrassing is that one of the most adamant opponents of the Civil Rights Act was Ku Klux Klansman, future Democrat Majority Leader, and current Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd. Byrd serves alongside Reid today. Jonathan Leaf, writing on the filibuster of 1964 says:
In total, the filibuster led by the "yellow dog" Democrats ran for ten million words over 534 hours, filling up 63,000 pages of the Congressional Record. Ultimately, 62 percent of Democratic congressmen and 60 percent of Democratic senators voted for the bill, compared to 80 percent of Republican congressman and 82 percent of Republican senators. {emphasis mine}
Reid should pay more attention to history, and not throw about labels that could be more accurately directed at his own party. The American public, and the voters of Nevada, don't want this health care bill. Reid can try to dance around the issue by smearing Republicans as racist while plugging his ears and ignoring the wishes of his own constituents. At the end of the day, this bill will hurt our economy far more than it will help it. On some level, Reid knows the dangers of this bill, and he knows it is unpopular. That's why he has resorted to calling Republicans racists when his arguments could easily be directed at his own party.
Instead of insulting Republicans, maybe Reid should try to listen to them.
8 comments:
I found this on a link from Drudge. It has some interesting information about what voters in Nevada think of the health care bill. I particularly thought this was interesting based on Harry Reid's comments today:
"When you look at the entire poll, it's clear the voters of Nevada do not want this bill to pass," said Brad Coker, managing partner of Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., which conducted the poll Monday through Wednesday. "When you break it all down, it appears that Nevadans would just as soon throw this bill out and start over."
I heard one female democrat yesterday, when debating the healthcare bill, state that it is discrimniatory to exclude abortion services when millions of women could use abortions.
I have read his quoted comments, not the entire statement, and from what I have seen I think some of the reaction is getting overblown. He did not state that Republician's were the ones that opposed the civil rights act nor the ones that opposed ending slavery.
Mr. Reid is correct, there were people opposed to the ending of slavery, opposed to the 19th amendment, and opposed to the civil rights acts. Most of those people were voicing the opinions of the people they represented. That is the way it is suppose to work.
There are 2 problems as I see it. One is that he linked people opposed to his bill, not necessarily health care reform, to the people that were against ending slavery, those against women suffrage and those against the civil rights acts. Not a smart move politically. Second is the feeling that I think he has about his health care bill. By saying, "instead of joining us on the right side of history," he is saying his bill is correct, the only option and will be history. That tells me he thinks himself to be a dictator. This is mine, it is correct, vote for it. Those senators have the right to vote his bill down not matter the reason behind it, good or not good for people of their state, good or not good for economy, because they are racist because they flipped a coin and it came up no. That is their right. He cannot stand up there and say I am right, I am making history, vote with me now. That is a dictatorship. Perhaps the history lesson he really needs is one on the constitution and how the senate works.
Also the Republicans are making me mad on this. Stop demanding an apology. Fight back. They sound like a little mama's boys that runs home after getting made fun of and get their mom to ask for an apology. The kid that apologies does not mean it nor will Mr. Reid. The damage is done. Most Americans don't know that it was a Republican president that freed the slaves. However, most do know, incorrectly I might add, that the south was the only region where racism took place and most southern states are republican. So Mr. Reid's statements just reinforce what people already "know." An apology is not going to change that, especially when he won't mean it. The Republicans need to step up to the plate and fight back. They need some thing more than just facts. They need something to get people fired up. Think of The American President movie, Michael Douglas' character was getting trashed by Richard Dreyfuss' character and Douglas' just sat there with no response. Well at the end he changed his tactic, came our firing and put Dreyfuss in his place. I know it is a movie and not real life but fire back Republicans, fire back.
Saint,
That's just nonsense.
Pack,
I think you may have a point. I would equate the Republicans demanding an apology to President Obama trying to blame every problem he encounters on the previous administration.
I know this is sort of off topic and late but I found another point of a congressman acting like a dictator.
On Wednesday, December 9th, a house subcommittee approved legislation for basically getting rid of the BCS in college football.
From a December 9th article on ESPN:
At a hearing on the BCS issue in May, Barton demanded a playoff and warned BCS officials that if "they sit on their hands and yawn, this legislation could end up on the President's desk for his signature." This week's development, according to a spokesman for the committee, is Barton's response to the BCS's refusal to consider a playoff.
On June 24th (after Barton's comments in May) ESPN reported here that the BCS collected reports and came to the conclusion that the current system is okay and denied the playoff plan proposed by the MWC.
That sounds to me like they considered a playoff system. They just did not decide the way this guy wanted them too, so now he is going to try and pass a law to get what he wants. That sounds a lot like "Do as I say or else." I must have misunderstood my government class in school but I believe that is not what a congressmen's job is.
I don't really understand what business Congress has in the BCS. Why do they get ANY input to how the NCAA decides its college football champion?
smart ass answer is that they think that they are that important...
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