The American Spectator

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Sparks Flying

12.10.04 @ 12:01AM

HARASSING HARRY REID
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Obscure Minority:

"They believed that despite the fact that their presidential candidate was the most ridiculous presidential candidate since, well, since General Wesley Clark, who could not have been more preposterous if he had run as a nudist. Of course, if Franklin Roosevelt were resurrected and forced to enunciate the positions of today's national Democratic Party he too would probably have lost in 2004."

This is so wrong!! How could you say that?

Kucinich was more preposterous than either D.
-- Sherri

Having read Mr. Reid's caustic analysis of Justice Thomas' tenure on the Supreme Court, I decided to visit the senator's website to gain some glimmer into this legal giant's bona fides. As one might imagine, Mr. Reid is a legal mediocrity of the first order. By his own admission, his legal benchmarks consist of a stint as Henderson City city attorney as well as serving on the Nevada Gaming Commission. A vague reference to private law practice offers no accomplishments during this tenure. As is the case of many professional lawyer legislators, Mr. Reid is long on politics and short on legal accomplishments. Perhaps if Mr. Russert had made some inquiry of Mr. Reid's legal acuity, after his "learned" analysis of Justice Thomas, we all could have enjoyed a good laugh over this pompous legal lightweight.
-- A. DiPentima, Esq.

One of the many advantages of living in Nevada is the close contact we enjoy with our elected political leaders. Due to the relatively small population, Nevadans enjoy frequent contact with all sorts of politicians, in all sorts of venues.

I have had the opportunity to listen Harry Reid speak at Town Hall meetings, Rotary Club meetings and Service Academy days at the local high school. On all those occasions, I found him to be an uninspiring, second-rate politician, who is incapable of answering a question with a straight answer. Sadly, that describes the majority of politicos, regardless of ideological stripe.

However, Harry's comments regarding Justice Thomas are a huge embarrassment to me, and I suspect many of my fellow Nevadans. I am ashamed to call him my senior Senator, and I sincerely hope the Republican Party can put forth a formidable opponent in 2010, when Harry comes up for re-election. The last time he faced a solid candidate from the Republican side, in 2000 when he ran against our junior Senator, John Ensign, he won by the slimmest of majorities.

Once again, Harry confirmed my view that he is at best, a mediocre statesman and his position of Senate Minority leadership assures me of the Democrats' continuing status as the minority party.

Harry professes to be a Pro-Life Democrat. Daschle started out that way as well. I hope someone puts the question to Harry so we can see how deep his Mormon roots are and how much he will "dance" around that issue. He's as slippery as the Texas Governor character played by Charles Durning in the Burt Reynolds movie, "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

By the way, his campaign ads focused on Harry's small town upbringing in tiny Searchlight, Nevada. We were constantly reminded of his nickname, "Pinky." I wonder if that refers to his political leanings?
-- Chris Cook
Sparks, Nevada

If Mr. Tyrrell is having a hard time getting past Sen. Harry Reid's pomposity and morally superior attitude, I've got more bad news for him. Sen. Reid has the unique ability to herd cats which is essential to lead the liberals in the Senate and he is a vicious political in-fighter. I hope I'm wrong but Sen. Reid's tenure as Senate minority leader may very well make us look back with fondness at the Tom Daschle years.
-- Jerome J. Brick
Beaver Dam, Arizona

R. Emmett Tyrrell's stiletto-like comments about the new Senate minority leader (Senator Harry Reid of Nevada) were wondrous to read but, I suspect, his is merely an early offering among a tidal-wave of such commentary to come from center-right punditry. Although, who except Tyrrell will come up with such characterizations as "born blank" or "preposterosity" to describe the good senator?

But, Reid's comments on "Meet the Press" that Justice Thomas is an "embarrassment to the court" and that his opinions are "poorly written" were no worse than Tim Russert's failure to ask the obvious question: what opinions do you mean, Senator?

This failure by Russert was not a surprise, however, because his record of bias against conservatism is obvious -- and it was especially so during the recent election campaign. For months leading up to the election, Russert had as guests on "Meet the Press" various liberal partisans such as Richard Clark, Joseph Wilson, Robert Byrd and others to bash the Bush administration. Yet, not a single Swift Boat Vets, or other such guest, appeared on "Meet the Press" to comment on Kerry's bogus war medals or his treachery as a war protester after he returned from Vietnam.

Letter to the Editor

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Harry Reid, Bill Clinton, Sports, Hollywood, Law, Supreme Court, Iraq, NATO, Conservatism, Immigration, Oil