The Reid syndrome

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid seems to me to personify one of the four categories of libel per se with respect to which certain proof otherwise required to make out a claim of libel is presumed. One of the four categories is a statement imputing a loathsome disease to another. When I hear the name of Harry Reid, I think loathsome disease. He embodies the slimy ethos of today’s Democratic Party. Next up, Keith Ellison!

In an exit interview with Nevada Public Radio (transcript and audio at the link), Reid took a few phone calls. Ryan called in to ask Reid if the “brazen lie” he told about Mitt Romney not paying his taxes had in any way contributed to the phenomenon of fake news. Reid responded in the style to which we have grown familiar. In this case it is not only familiarity that breeds contempt. Reid answered Ryan:

First of all, Ryan, there were no brazen lies. What I said is the truth. Mitt Romney had refused and has still refused to show us his tax returns. He gave us the main part of two tax returns. This is when he is running for president. That is not a true sign of what he had done. I guess the new plan we have to look at is Donald Trump, who shows us nothing. Prior to Trump it was standard procedure going back many, many decades that presidential candidates would give us 10 years of tax returns. Mitt Romney has never done that.

And so there’s no brazen lies [sic]. I did what was necessary. He fought even giving those two years that were meaningless because he was already running for president and all of his financial dealings where he became an extremely wealthy man, we were unable to see any of that. So you can brand it anyway you like but it was no brazen lies [sic], it’s the truth.

See what I mean? Harry Reid: loathsome disease.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses