Which is it Harry?
Senator Harry Reid likes to remind us he was an amateur boxer in his youth, which was a long, long, time ago. He does this to imply he is still a fighter. This is the image the media portrays of him, but I find it funny they never mention he is a Mormon.
The media had no problems telling us that Mitt Romney was a Mormon, and blowing dog whistles that this religion might be a little odd, maybe even a cult. Why they can marry more than one woman I heard. No such talk in the media when it comes to their dear Harry. He is a sane Mormon, it’s only Republican Mormons who are crazy. Yes, it’s the politics that make the man crazy, not the religion. Unless you are a born again Christian, but that is another matter for another post.
The Washington Post has a report on the government shutdown and offers us this about “The Champ”, that would be Sen. Reid;
“Reid continued his personal feud with Boehner, whom he accused of going back on his word that the House would avert a shutdown by passing a stopgap funding bill that would pass the Senate. Instead, the Democratic leader said Boehner has given in to his right flank out of fear that passing legislation with Democratic votes would jeopardize his hold on the speaker’s gavel.”
That is funny too, Reid says Boehner has given in to those Tea Party “hostage takers.” This was not Sen. Reid’s take on the House Speaker back during the fiscal cliff negotiations over New Years. Sen. Reid took to the senate floor and called Boehner a “dictator.” The Atlantic Wire from Jan. 2, 2013 gives us Speaker Boehner’s response to this accusation, this occurred in the White House lobby just steps from the door of the Oval Office;
“According to “multiple sources,” Boehner pointed his finger at Reid and without any other fanfare said, “Go fuck yourself.” When Reid asked him what he was talking about, Boehner simply repeated his curse and moved on.”
Since then, and some other incidents with The Champ talking out of his rear end, the media has taken Harry under their wing. Explaining that sometimes Sen. Reid says things with out thinking. He is passionate, but no harm, no foul, he means well. Republicans get no deference like this from the media when they misspeak off the cuff. They are savaged.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked Sen. Reid about piece meal funding of the government, which The Champ rejected, she continued by asking if it could just help one child with cancer why not do it? To which the esteemed senator from Nevada answered by saying asking him such a question made her as “irresponsible and reckless” as what the Republicans are doing.
When I turn my ear to the media’s reporting of this, outside of the conservative media and CNN who got slightly peeved for a news cycle about it, all I hear is Simon and Garfunkel. The Sound of Silence. If a Republican would have rebuffed a reporter’s question in this insulting way The New York Times editorial board would have taken to the pages of the Old Grey Lady and given us a long condescending editorial of how the media is the Fourth Estate and a lecture about the media’s importance to the process, etc, etc, etc, and et cetera.
But if I would have been there at that same presser with Dana Bash, I would have raised my hand with my little note pad and pen, yelled out and asked this question, “Sen. Reid, which is it?! Is Speaker Boehner a dictator or a hostage to the Tea Party because I don’t think he can be both?!”
I imagine if The Champ was not too punch drunk to remember his encounter with Speaker Boehner and the endearing phrase he delivered to him with a right hook, which deserves a Profile in Courage by the way, Harry would repeat it as his answer to me. Just like the media didn’t care much about how Sen. Reid treated Dana Bash, there would have been no long essay in The New York Times (the only newspaper the President of the United States says he reads) about why he shouldn’t tell a reporter to go “blank” herself.
However, the media have all missed what the real headline should be, “The Champ has never had an original thought in his brain. He is a party hack who just repeats and does what he is told.” Love him, or hate him, Speaker Boehner has tried to display leadership and courage both in the face of his own party and against the opposition. These are qualities that Harry Reid has never had or will never possess.
That is the difference between Republican leadership and Democrat leadership. It’s easy for Sen. Reid, or Nancy Pelosi for that matter, to lead a bunch of head nodding mindless drones walking in lockstep to the party’s coffers for their piece of the dole. Speaker Boehner has a much more difficult job, and it proves he is neither of The Champ’s ideas about him.
