Alas Poor Harry, I Knew Him Well
Death cannot erase what a nasty piece of work the Senator from Searchlight truly was.
Of course, my sympathies go out to the family of Harry Reid, as they would to any family that has lost a loved one. Human decency requires at least that much.
But let us not sugarcoat Reid’s career in death.
Let’s face it, when the searchlight is turned on the career of the Senator from Searchlight it becomes clear that Harry was a true scoundrel, a nasty, nasty piece of work.
Like Corn Pop, Harry was a bad dude.
It is disheartening to see and hear the tributes coming from the right side of the aisle. I understand a degree of deference is expected for a member of the Senate club, but these statements certainly seem disingenuous given Reid’s record.
Mike Lee characterized Reid as “a kind, caring friend” when, at least to conservatives, he was nothing of the sort. To anyone who opposed him, Reid was most certainly not kind, caring or a friend.
Perhaps in a defining moment of his career, Reid hid behind the Speech and Debate clause to blatantly lie about Mitt Romney’s taxes from the Senate floor during the 2012 campaign. When challenged by the media after Obama was safely home for his second term (after the Benghazi atrocity), Reid famously quipped “Well, he didn’t win, did he?”
Shameless and evil are two words that come to mind.
Mitch McConnell released a statement that he “never doubted that Harry was always doing what he earnestly, deeply felt was right for Nevada and our country.”
No.
Just no.
His career proved the only two things Reid loved more than himself were power and the Democrat Party.
Harry Reid did what he earnestly, deeply felt was right for himself and the Democrat party, to hell with the rest. If it happened to benefit Nevada, well then it was a happy accident.
Reid’s life might be, as McConnell noted, a “quintessentially American story, and Reid may have possessed “legendary toughness, bluntness, and tenacity” – but he used those characteristics in some nefarious pursuits during his long career.
Compared to Reid, current Democrat senatorial crime boss Chuck Schumer looks like Mother Theresa.
The Reid family, like the Biden clan, was involved in any number of self-enriching schemes in their home state.
Reid violated Senate rules with abandon, in 2006 he concealed a seven-figure payoff on a suspicious land deal orchestrated by a longtime friend known for political bribery and mob ties. Reid secretly collected a $1.1 million profit on land he hadn’t personally owned for years. In 2012 he was embroiled in a scandal involving a Chinese “green energy” client of a Nevada law firm run by his son Rory.
Never forget that Reid’s manipulation of Senate rules in 2010 gave America Obamacare, a plan so popular and great it had to be made mandatory and implemented through force of law. Of course, it went on to ruin health insurance for millions of Americans who were perfectly happy with the plans they had and, in the process, created another raft of entitlement programs that will never be erased.
According to news reports, in 2013 Reid took more than $130,000 in illegal campaign funds from a shady donor, Harvey Whittemore, who eventually went to jail. Whittemore hired four of the senator’s sons at a law firm in which he served as senior partner and worked with Reid on huge land deals that required federal legislation. Additionally, Reid sponsored at least $47 million in earmarks that directly benefitted organizations with close ties to one of his sons, Key Reid. The legislator also colluded with President Obama to nix a proposed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain Nevada after U.S. taxpayers spent $15 billion on the project.
Also in 2013, Reid nuked the Senate filibuster rules thereby changing the way the Senate operates, possibly forever.
In 2013 Breitbart reported that Reid’s ritual abuse of his authority continued when he pressured the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expedite a $115 million foreign investor visa deal critical to his son’s casino client. The family patriarch got the DHS to override agency procedures to rush through hundreds of visa applications from foreign nationals who helped fund a Las Vegas hotel and casino that hired Rory Reid to provide legal representation for the project.
That last one seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Reid announced his “retirement” a few days after this one hit the newswires.
Reid was everything every politician claims to hate, he was a hyper-partisan, lying, backstabbing, ruthless, self-dealing political ghoul who never missed an opportunity to stab Republicans and then twist the knife every chance he got.
Why Republicans feel compelled to rehabilitate the life story of a truly evil man is beyond me. Reid’s death, while a loss for his family, did not change his history any more than the deaths of Michael Brown or George Floyd changed theirs.
I’m sure most have been given the same advice my parents and grandparents gave me - if you can’t say something good about somebody, just say nothing at all.
Let’s do that.
Harry Reid’s family may deserve sympathy, but in my estimation, Reid and his career of corruption deserves little more than silence.