If given the choice between saying something productive and something completely ineffectual, Harry Reid will always choose the latter. It is his signature Quirk! It is no surprise then that last night on the Senate floor Harry Reid did this rather silly thing by comparing Republicans who oppose the health care bill to people who thought that it was okay to own other human beings as slaves. “Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, ‘Slow down, stop everything, let’s start over. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said, ‘Slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.’” According to AP US History, this is the exact plot of the Civil War.
MEANWHILE: Michael Steele has been waiting his whole life for this. Harry Reid is NOT in the game… or Harry Reid IS in the game, and that is why Michael Steele is responding in a fashion consistent with the parameters of the game. Whatever position vis-à-vis the game that Harry Reid occupies, that is the one Michael Steele disapproves of:
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele suggested Democrats should strip Reid of his leadership position if he does not apologize for the comments.
“To suggest that passing this horrible bill is anything akin to ridding our country of slavery is terribly offensive and calls into question Mr. Reid’s suitability to lead,” said Steele, who characterized the majority leader as having “wandered far out of bounds with his absurd and offensive comments.”
“If he is going to stand by these statements, the Democrats must immediately reconsider his fitness to lead them,” Steele said.
This week’s entire news cycle will be dominated by Republicans forcing Harry Reid to apologize for trying to legislate Medicare away from our nation’s Civil War veterans.
[The Hill]
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This week’s entire news cycle will be dominated by Republicans forcing Harry Reid to apologize for trying to legislate Medicare away from our nation’s Civil War veterans.
Or it would, if anyone really gave a shit about what Michale Steel says. Or Harry Reid, for that matter.
It’s vindication time for Steele baby. Time to take all that juice out of storage and cold cap a Senate majority leader.
Oh, and supporting Medicare cuts make you more evil than Himmler.
Shouldn’t have opened that door, Harry. You know the Republicans will jump to refight the Civil War at any chance they get.
Just think about how high-minded and civilized the Republicans have been throughout this debate about health insurance reform. Remember that?
Me neither.
Despite Mikey “Rusted” Steele’s weak protestations Harry is right (WTF?) about this. Fighting a pointless and stubborn war against the tide of human progress is in the Dixiecrat’s, um, Southern GOPer blood.
The South will rise again, unless Viagra isn’t covered in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, in which case the South will just remain limp and useless.
I call “Nazis!”
The most useless humans on the planet must be the chiefs of staff for congressmen. There are two steps in the “Harry Reid wants to compare Health Care to Slavery” process: 1) Tell him that he can’t say that. If he says he’s going to say it anyway, 2) Punch him in the fucking face.
[re=473732]Larry McAwful[/re]: I forget, who were the victors and who the vanquished in that little dust up?
Yup, a minority of the population mistreated, impoverished and even dying because the majority sees no problem with the status quo is not at all like slavery.
Added Steele, “Making overwrought, inaccurate, ill-thought comparisons of modern political debates to historical atrocities is our gig, and the Democrats shouldn’t be horning in on that.”
“Obama is just like Stalin! The public option is the Holocaust!”
I guess Harry Reid is a racist.
[re=473735]germansteel[/re]: Agreed. This will be Reid’s waterloo. Death Panels!!1
An uncle tom speaking out against slavery? I do declare!
Republicans are appeasing cancer.
Leave it to Reid to take a fundamentally sound argument and make it sound stupid. For perhaps the only time ever, I agree with Steele. As soon as Health Care Reform passes, Reid should be put out to pasture. If it doesn’t pass, Reid should be quietly tacken out back and shot.
Michael Steele just went full house-Negro here.
[re=473745]Come here a minute[/re]: No, I think Harry Reid’s point is that he guesses that Michael Steele must be a racist. But wouldn’t it have been rhetorically stronger to equate Health-Care-Opposers with Nazi-Appeasers or Holocaust-Deniers?
Cow on the tracks says “Moo.”
Saying Heath Care Reform is like Slavery Abolition is like suggesting the Michael Steele is somehow in league with people whose sympathies lie with the Conferderacy!! I mean ,ABSURD!!!!!1!
[re=473732]Larry McAwful[/re]: Except this time on the other side.
[re=473763]Gopherit[/re]: No, no, no… he’ll be taken to a farm upstate where he can run free and chase rabbits for the rest of his days.
Will this give John Boner another chance to go before the media to deplore the hyperbowl of the democrats? At least we’ll have the last laugh at the republican’s expense, as usual.
I don’t get what Reid did wrong. Republicans are evil. Duh.
[re=473730]Spike[/re]: Plus, Tiger Wood’s had a white woman hauled away from his house in ambulance this morning, and I heard about some possible nude photos (really?) on the radio this morning.
What if this was some genius political calculus by Reid? Like, making a clumsy analogy that forces the GOP to get all mock-outraged, followed by Reid’s weak “apology,” followed by MORE mock-outrage from the GOP and their talk-radio supporters, followed by the Democrats finally tuning out the GOP and unifying in getting SOMETHING done.
Also from AP American History… post Civil War, the Republicans waived the “Bloody Shirt” whenever the opposition got too close to beating them.
I think now the Republicans are guilty of “Waiving the Cashmire Sweater” whenever the opposition gets too close to beating them.
[re=473741]engulfedinflames[/re]: The liberals won and the conservatives lost. Now, as then, the conservatives are flying the Stars and Bars. The conservatives tried to stop black people from voting some fifty years ago, and they lost at that, too.
It looks like North vs. South, again. Only this time, Maryland and Delaware are part of the North, West Virginia and Kentucky are part of the South, and the border states are North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri.
Now it’s time to burn Atlanta again. I’ve been to Atlanta, and I can vouch that it could use a good burning.
This stuff ain’t important. I wanna hear once more about how firetrucks were called to a house near where Tiger Woods lives. I take it we’re supposed to assume that TW was somehow responsible for this? Now that’s the REAL news.
Next we’ll be hearing about horrible tragedies that take place in the town, and then in the state where Tiger Woods lives. Co-inky-dink? I think not.
We distort. You decide.
Or not.
[re=473804]Scott-san[/re]: Yeah, what if Harry Reid is the Drunken Master of the Senate? Hm?! Or, he could just suck at this job.
“… the Democrats must immediately reconsider his fitness to lead them.”
Bring it, Brother Steel. It just goes to show, even a broken watch is correct twice a day. Or in Steel’s case, once, period.
[re=473802]T.J.M[/re]: Nude photos on the radio doesn’t sound very exciting.
I know. Lets just make people who lack health insurance slaves for the GOPers. I bet they wouldn’t let 45,000 of them die every year if they OWNED them. Alternatively, we could make the uninsured officially “unborn” thus unlocking a great font of build up Goper compassion.
[re=473739]snideinplainsight[/re]: DING DING DING! We have a winner!
Mikulski Invokes Nazi Germany To Describe Some Insurance Company Practices [TPM]
Suddenly gaffes and misstatements are grounds for stripping leadership authority?
Michael Steele may not want to be advocating that.
Reid could have chosen from a hundred cases in history when conservatives have stopped progress by screaming “Slow down, it’s too early!” I would have gone with jet packs.
[re=473846]Ducksworthy[/re]: I concur with both points. Given the large, poor masses that support the GOP, #2 seems more likely, as I doubt those in poverty somehow still voting for the GOP would have the means to own their neighbors. Instead, lets classify all as the unborn. Genius!
[re=473840]Maxine of Arc[/re]: You’ve never heard the expression “Now there’s an ass for radio!”?
This is a principled move by the GOP – saying what is right even at the risk of offending that fraction of the base that approve of slavery (47%).
[re=473736]ManchuCandidate[/re]: Oh, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Stubborn, reactionary resistance to change is all the Republican Party really does anymore. But SLAVERY? That’s the metaphor you’re going with? There’s got to be a better historical example to go with than that. Now everyone gets to act all offended at Harry Reid, and all Democrats by extension, for a full news cycle (three hours).
Sarah Palin will demand an apology for this remark from President Obama, calling it now.
Reid should stop trying to argue with them and go full Rambo. It’s like arguing with the Taliban who only appreciate bombs and such.
[re=473782]gurukalehuru[/re]: STEELE: “Slow down, you moo too fast.”
Cue the chorus of GOP voices reminding us that, back in the good ole days, it was acutally the Democrats who were in favor of owning human beings.
[re=473913]chaste everywhere[/re]: That would be Rush.
[re=473976]pondscum[/re]: Never laid eyes, or any other body part, on Rush’s, so must reserve judgment.
I know he’s fun to hate, but Reid is right on here. It IS like slavery, in that a motivated, largely Southern minority party is trying to halt the wheels of progress with the stick of “preserving economic liberty.” He’s just incapable of sounding convincing about anything. Because he is a bag of frothy douche in which lightly-salted rat dicks bob like tiny pink apples of despair.
Yes, yes, please strip him of his leadership position and get someone efficient who can afford to take liberal positions in there. I can’t believe I’m agreeing with Michael Steele. But my god that would be awesome.
Kinda like what this guy was saying
abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html
I am dum
http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html
[re=473983]AbstinenceOnly Ed[/re]: Well, that was a mental image that will likely drive me to drink more than usual.
And about now is when the rest of the GOP starts nodding and gruntin, “Ah, so there IS a good reason to have one of them blacks around. It’s much more effective if a black refutes it.”
Sad thing is, there is now one thing that Steele has said that I agree with and that makes me cry on the inside: Harry Reid must be replaced.
Teapot, meet tempest. Nothing -whatsoever- to see here.
I’m sorry, but while it would have been smart to steer away from this, Reid is not even hardly wrong? This may be Godwin’s Law-esque, but it ain’t wrong.
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