Democrat Senator Wants Paige to Resign for 'Terrorist' Remark

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 2/26/04 | Robert B. Bluey

[kattracks]

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate's second ranking Democrat, said Thursday that Education Secretary Rod Paige should resign for comments he made earlier this week describing the National Education Association as a "terrorist organization."

"I met with the governors who were there, and Secretary Paige did not say once that the National Education Association was a 'terrorist organization,' he said it twice," Reid told CNSNews.com. "I think it's despicable. I personally think the secretary should resign."

Reid, the Senate's minority whip, joins a growing chorus of lawmakers advocating Paige's resignation. Over the course of the week, Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) and Reps. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) and Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) have voiced criticism of the education chief.

Paige made the comment - perhaps as a joke - on Monday at a private meeting with governors at the White House. The secretary apologized later that day, but he refused to back down from his criticism of the nation's largest teachers union. He also said he wouldn't resign.

"It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms," Paige said. "The NEA's high-priced Washington lobbyists have made no secret that they will fight against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children."

Reid, who was accepting an education award Thursday from the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, said the apology wasn't good enough.

"I do not accept his apology," Reid said. "What he said, being a secretary of education who is out there to help children and help teachers, saying that an organization which represents more teachers than any organization in the world is a terrorist organization, I think it's despicable."

Dayton said Wednesday that Paige had done "very little" to improve education, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

"I think that the comment he made was so far beyond the pale that he would best serve the cause of public education in this country by resigning," the Minnesota senator told the paper.

Meanwhile, the Star-Tribune reported that McCollum was circulating a letter to other members of Congress asking President Bush to urge Paige to step down. The White House, while condemning the remark, has otherwise stood by Paige.

The NEA's president, Reg Weaver, has also called on Paige to resign. Weaver said the union of 2.7 million members should not have to endure "unfair labels and mean-spirited apologies."

The Bush administration, led by Paige's Department of Education, has frequently clashed with the NEA over the No Child Left Behind Act, a two-year-old bipartisan measure that holds schools accountable for improving student performance.

See Earlier Story:
Education Secretary Apologizes for NEA 'Terrorist' Remark (Feb. 23, 2004)

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[Betaille]

How about if instead Reid resigns for not letting parents choose which schools to put their children in. Why do so many parents have to home-school? They should have the option of putting their children in a school that shares their values. The tax-payers should fund those schools just the way they are forced to fund the liberal, secular brainwashing centers called public schools that the Democrats love so much.

[concerned about politics]

They want someone honest to resign for being truthful, yet when a Democrat lies like a thief they're a hero?

"Woe to those who call good evil, and evil good!"

The left just has a way of getting everything backwards. They're progressive regressives. It's like they know not which way they went.

[concerned about politics]

an organization which represents more teachers than any organization

Yep. It's a terrorist organization just like he said. Good man. A real hero!

[autoresponder]

Reid is a frustrated loser egotist



At the end of the trail

[concerned about politics]

. The White House, while condemning the remark, has otherwise stood by Paige.

Good. They'd better keep it that way. I still haven't gotten over giving our tax money to the liberal indoctrination centers the way it is!

[GeronL]

Democrats call the Bush administration terrorists all the time

[Mo1]

Democrats call the Bush administration terrorists all the time

And a lot of other names too

Hitler .. Nazi are a couple

[Chunga]

This is so transparent. A guy with a miniscule African-American constituency is used by the Dems to go after Paige, a black man who refuses to live on the liberal plantation.

I think Harry Reid should resign for not demanding the resignation of Robert Byrd when he uttered the N-word on national television.

[KingNo155]

Any group that uses children as pawns is a "terrorist organization."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When the NEA goes on strike who suffers?

[I got the rope]

Looks like another white man trying to keep the black man down. I say let's call Reid a racist...he'll drop this like a bad habit.

[thinktwice]

I propose Harry Reid resign and retire to his single-wide in Tonopah.

Harry Reid hails from Searchlight, Nevada; a desert highway intersection -- between Vegas and Laughlin -- with far fewer people than Tonopah.

While I was buying gas there one day, the operator told me that Harry Reid drops by about once every six years to pass out candy bars.

[codyjacksmom]

Yeah, but it's ok for Rep. Corrine Brown D-Fl to tell a room full of white people that they all look the same and that they were a "bunch of white men". Now she says she's sorry and that her words were taken out of context. How do you take the words, "bunch of white men" and "all look the same" out of context. Another case of discrimination against white people. If these were not racist remarks, then I don't know what is. But it's OK to try to get a white man out of office because he called a bunch of crooked union leaders a terrorist group. Give me a break. Where is the equality here? It is not right! It IS discrimination. It IS racist. PERIOD!

[Coop]

Okay, Harry. Paige will consider resigning as soon as the obese, Kopechne-killing drunk who called the President a "fraud" resigns. And right after the cross-burning Ku Klux Klan senator from WV resigns. And immediately after the WA senator who praised Osama Bin Laden resigns.

I suggest you clean your own house before worrying about others', Mr. Reid.

[nathanbedford]

The NEA is one of the most malevolent institutions in America. It blinds our children while it corrupts our legislators. Combined with other institutions like the Ford Foundation, its capacity for harm outside the classroom is magnified.

But this is not the way to wage this war. It only animates the adversary without energizing the good guys or the general public. If you want to challange the Rats free floating Bush bashing on education, here is the place to start. But don't pick this fight against nearly three million teachers who are committed and organized leftists unless you are prepared to fight to the finish.

It is typical of the electioneering tactics of the Bushes that Paige will be left to twist in the breeze. Here is a good and worthy fight against an adversary who is harming every school age child or grandchild in America. It would energize the base and engage independents. It is worth fighting. It would cost the taxpayer nothing and just might save some kids.

It will never happen so long as "compassion" trumps conservatism.

[17th Miss Regt]

Another approach might be to write lots of letters to him supporting Reid for his courage in calling for Mr. Paige's resignation and that you wish more senators had the courage to call for the purging of minorities from the cabinet as they clearly have no business being in positions of power. Send LOTS of letters like this to him.

[I got the rope]

LOL. I'll do that.