“Dirty Harry,” And Other News *Weekend Open Thread*

The news has been all a-twitter about Harry Reid claiming he did not call stories about the disaster that is Healthcare lies. That is just astonishing, especially since we have recorded evidence of Harry Reid doing PRECISELY that on the Senate floor:

Uh, yeah. Thanks for playing, Sen. Reid. There is someone who has been spewing lies, that’s for sure. And that liar would be Reid.

It is about the Senate Majority Liar that Matthew Continetti wrote this piece,
The Grandfather, Column: The autumn of patriarch Harry Reid (h/t to a Facebook friend for this). One can only hope that this is indeed the “autumn” of his tenure. What is stunning is that he is still in there at all, especially when you consider this from Continetti’s article:

Another man might have assumed, correctly, that launching a campaign of insult and insinuation against two billionaires would result in renewed attention to his own finances. Not Harry Reid. The Senate Democratic leader since 2005, and the Senate majority leader since 2007, is not one to reflect before speaking. His mouth runs far ahead of his brain.

In recent years Reid has declared an American war “lost” while our troops still fought overseas; praised President Obama for his “light” skin and “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”; asserted falsely and without evidence that Mitt Romney had not paid any taxes for a decade; and said “Why would we want to do that?” when asked if he would fund cancer research during the government shutdown.

Now, with his majority in danger, his president unpopular, his floor agenda obstructed by members of his own caucus, Reid thrashes about uncontrollably. He calls Obamacare horror stories “untrue.” He says Obamacare numbers are not as high as projected because Americans “are not educated on how to use the Internet.” His Senate Majority PAC launches a $3 million ad campaign tying Republican candidates to two men most Americans have never heard of, two men who, funnily enough, are more popular than Reid. […]

Can you believe that? Reid essentially called those of us over 50 stupid for not being able to use the unbelievably TERRIBLE website for Obamacare. Yep, that’s a lot of respect he’s got there for us, isn’t it? Oh, yeah…

You may recall that recently I wrote about the nepotism of Harry Reid with his granddaughter, but that was just the tip of the iceberg:

[…] The fact that Harry Reid’s political and influence operation includes his five children has been established for some time. A few weeks ago, when I first heard Reid accuse private citizens of being un-American, I dredged up a Los Angeles Times article from 2003 with the headline, “In Nevada, the Name to Know Is Reid.” Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper’s meticulously researched and reported article begins with the story of the “Clark County Conservation of Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002,” a land bill of the sort that puts people to sleep. “What Reid did not explain” when he introduced the bill in the Senate, Neubauer and Cooper wrote, “was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations, and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons’ and son-in-law’s firms.” I wonder why he left that part out.

Firms tied to the Reid family, the Los Angeles Times reported, earned more than $2 million from 1998 to 2002 “from special interests that were represented by the kids and helped by the senator in Washington.” How much more have they earned in the 11 years since this article was published? Land, energy, water, gaming, and mining—the Reids manage a diversified portfolio. They are not financial investors but political ones. Reid’s four sons are lawyers, as is his son-in-law. They make their money furthering the interests of paying clients, clients operating businesses in the state represented by Reid. […] (Click here to read the rest of this excellent piece on the Senate Majority leader.)

Ah, must be nice to have those kinds of connections, especially with someone who has such a fleeting acquaintance with honesty and integrity as Reid apparently does. What a piece of work he is…

But that’s not all the news. Once again, President Obama is in Saudi Arabia, sucking up to King Abdullah on Friday so he won’t be mad at us. Why we should be worried about Saudi Arabia when it, as a member of the Arab League, just recently refused to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish State, is beyond me. Well, I guess considering it’s Obama, I shouldn’t be at all surprised. Just seems to me that considering what Saudi Arabia has been up to of late, they should be sucking up to US. But that’s just me.

This reminds me of this classic scene from the “West Wing.” CJ Craig, played by Allison Janney:

That pretty much sums it up.

And last but not least, the metaphorical jury is in, and it appears that Gov. Christie did NOT know what his staff was doing:

A report from lawyers hired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie absolved him of any role in orchestrating lane closures at the George Washington Bridge last year, and also cleared his senior staff from the controversy.

At the same time, the report released Thursday said that two former aides to the Republican governor planned the closures, and misled his senior staff into thinking that the lanes were realigned as part of a traffic study.

“Our findings today are a vindication of Gov. Christie,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a Manhattan-based firm that conducted the review.[…] (Click here to read the rest.)

And there you have it. Of course, some people are dismissing the findings because it was an internal review. The following comments by one of the attorneys sets the record straight on that:

And there ya have it. I am sure Gov. Christie is glad to have this chapter closed, and to have his honesty in this matter affirmed. Gee, what a concept for a politician, especially when we have people like Harry Reid in power…

Before I go, I have to leave you with this adorable video Helen shared with me at Facebook. It made me smile and laugh. I hope it does the same for you:

So stinkin’ cute – both of them! Just adorable.

Okay, this is your Weekend Open Thread. Have at it!