When Harry Barks
Remember when Barack Obama was going to usher in a new era of congeniality in our politics? In his famous words he said, “…we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America.” The great healer Obama told us we were all together, one people and that the future was in cooperation, hope and change. We’ve had plenty of change, but many have lost of all hope and cooperation has been non-existent.
Obama took his message of bi-partisanship and flipped it on its head using massive majorities in the House and Senate to institute policies that had little to do with cooperation. First the president forced through the Congress a $787 billion dollar stimulus bill that has done nothing to stimulate the economy. Then the president steam rolled through the largest entitlement in U.S. history, Obamacare, without a single GOP vote. His field generals Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid used their control over the Congress to produce the most one-sided legislation in the history of the nation proving we are even more divided after the election of Barack Obama.
Now the great “uniter” is using his favorite political attack dogs against Mitt Romney and truth and decency are cast to the wind.
Last week Harry Reid, perhaps the most divisive man to ever hold the title of Senate Majority Leader, took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to fling libelous claims, without backing them up, upon the Republican candidate for the White House. Reid said, “the word is out that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes in the last 10 years.”
Since when are the elected leaders of the nation supposed to hurl out innuendo and accusations based on “words” heard from an undisclosed source? Reid claimed he was told this by an unnamed Bain Capital investor. No name, no facts to back up Reid’s accusations, just some red meat to toss out onto the floor of the Senate.
What did the great healer Obama do after Reid launched his unproven claims on Romney? Absolutely nothing. Obama and his campaign dodged questions because the entire affair was orchestrated by the president’s re-election campaign; they just sat back and let their Senate lap dog do the dirty work.
If a Republican says something ridiculous or not backed up by facts, the folks on the other side of the aisle go into full attack mode; the mainstream media launches a full-on assault upon the offender leaving nothing more than a rotting carcass behind. With but a few exceptions, Harry Reid’s venomous and indefensible accusations against Mitt Romney are floating about like a feather in the wind and the GOP is left to defend itself.
Romney quickly responded that Harry Reid’s accusations were totally false and that Harry should “put up or shut up.” Mitt demanded Reid reveal his source, knowing all well that he would do nothing of the sort as no such source existed.
Reid knew how outlandish his charges would seem before he made them on the Senate floor telling the Huffington Post that, “Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain. But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?”PolitiFact rated Reid’s unsubstantiated claim as “pants on fire” false and “far-fetched.”
No Class Reid
Harry Reid, an outspoken critic of Obama “birthers” that insisted that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., has now created an entirely new class of bizarre extremist nut job we can call “taxers.” Mr. Reid doesn’t believe Romney paid no taxes in the last 10 ye
ars and there’s no Bain Investor that told Harry anything as an investor in Bain wouldn’t have access to Romney private tax returns. It’s a lie. Plain and simple.
Is it just a coincidence that Reid made his claims to the Huffington Post and on the Senate floor after the president’s campaign spent the prior two weeks pressing Romney to release at least 12 years of tax returns? Does the president and his team think we’re that stupid? The answer is obvious.
When Democrats hurl charges they can’t back up, it’s because they’re politically astute; when Republicans do the same they’re just right-wing radicals.
Reid said on the Senate floor of Romney: “As we know, he has refused to release his tax returns.”
Unfortunately this is just one more Harry Reid fib. Romney already released his 2010 return and an estimate for 2011. Romney promised to release his completed 2011 return when it is filed before the fall election.
John McCain released just two years of tax returns before the 2008 election, the same as Romney, which at that time was quite okay with the Liberals; but then again McCain wasn’t filthy rich and Obama wasn’t playing to the Occupy Wall Street morons.
A few from the left-wing media have stepped forward to criticize Reid. New York Times’ Frank Bruni labeled Reid’s tactics as “spew first.” Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” said, “Here’s a rule of thumb: If you have to follow your claim with the words ‘I don’t know if that’s true,’ then shut up,” and compared Reid to Donald Trump and his “birther” claims.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus angrily responded to a week full of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s accusations about Mitt Romney’s tax returns, calling Reid a “dirty liar” on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Priebus has gone on to repeat the claim two more times demonstrating that the GOP chairman isn’t about to pull back from his assertion that Reid is lying and Priebus likely has the facts to back it up.
As condemnation began to flow in towards Reid his fellow “partisan loony,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, came to his aid saying that Reid’s statement “is true. Somebody told him. It is a fact.”
It must be a relief to Mr. Reid that a woman whose skin has been pulled so tight around her head that her brain has been compressed to the size of a peach pit has come to his defense.
Politics is a dirty profession; perhaps the dirtiest there ever was or will be; but the “make it up as you go,” cast honesty and personal values to the curb mentality of Reid and Pelosi just makes one’s skin crawl.
What victory is gained Mr. Reid, when in the battle you, your credibility, your respect and the value of the truth is lost?
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