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Obscure Minority (In Harry Reid, Democrats have a small-minded leader for the ages.)
The American Prowler | 12/9/2004 | R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

Posted on 12/09/2004 1:28:13 AM PST by nickcarraway

WASHINGTON -- Do you know who Harry M. Reid might be? Frankly I did not know either until he was quoted in the newspapers as having said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Justice Clarence Thomas is "an embarrassment to the Supreme Court." He also asseverated that Justice Thomas's opinions "are poorly written." As he made these utterances recently on "Meet the Press" I concluded that the man must have some stature, unless, of course, the issue being treated on the show was small-town bigotry. Well, it turns out that this fellow Reid is a United States senator. In fact, he is the incoming Senate Minority Leader from Nevada.

Senator Reid will replace the ever-purring Senator Tom Daschle as Minority Leader after Senator Daschle's mishap on November 2. This should be amusing. On the same program he also said Justice Antonin Scalia would probably get his support if the President nominates him to be chief justice because Justice Scalia is "one smart guy." So Senator Reid is not a small-town bigot. Rather he is just another vulgar mind, raised to eminence by Democrats and emboldened to favor us with his crude thoughts. If in the course of "Meet the Press" he were to have wiped his nose on his sleeve I would not be surprised. Doubtless, he would have a morally-superior explanation if anyone questioned his etiquette. This is the consequence when liberalism's morally-superior mindset affixes itself on mediocrity.

The moral pretense of the American liberal is a thing to marvel upon. So is the intellectual pretense. The Nevada senator who pronounced on Justice Thomas's record and literary merit is a man of no intellectual distinction whatsoever. Having read over the transcript of his remarks on "Meet the Press" I can tell you he articulates woodenly. His thoughts are banal. How well he writes I cannot say with total confidence, but if he writes as well as he speaks he is -- after his first few simple sentences -- unreadable.

What would provoke such a born blank to pronounce on the intellectual capacities of either Justice Thomas or Justice Scalia? The incoming Senate Minority Leader believes he is part of that large gaggle of impostors who consider themselves liberals or "progressives," as they in their florid vanity would have it. They are confident that they stand in that long line of prodigies that goes back to the New Deal and beyond to the Progressive Era. Their forebears believed in the Bill of Rights, the right of laborers to organize, public health, internationalism, and other perfectly sensible matters. Today the Harry M. Reids believe in Vast Right-Wing Conspiracies, a government as good as Sweden's, and the United Nations as a monitor of American foreign policy. Oh yes, and they believe Justice Thomas does not write very well.

They also believe that they won the presidential election in 2000 and many believe that they won it in 2004. They doubt the outcome of the 2004 election because they approached Election Day absolutely confident that they were headed for a stupendous triumph. 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.

The problem with Harry M. Reid's party is that it is about 30 years out of date. Its economic position is that of John Kenneth Galbraith, without the wit. Its foreign policy is that of Warren Harding. Its social policy is that of Betty Friedan, without the charm. If Senator Reid does not know who Warren Harding is I suggest he call Justice Scalia, that "one smart guy."

Thirty years ago Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said all the "new ideas" were coming from the right. Off and on he tried to come up with some new ideas for the Democrats. Whether he succeeded or not, the Democrats paid no more attention to his ideas than they paid to the right. They slumbered contentedly in their conceit that they were the morally and intellectually superior. Now they are being lead by this preposterosity, Reid. And he thinks his judgments on Justice Thomas matter. He is in the minority and that minority will remain a minority for a very long time with him as Leader.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: clarencethomas; democrats; harryread; intellectual; intelligence; liberalcrackup; nbc; reid; remmetttyrrelljr
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1 posted on 12/09/2004 1:28:13 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

I keep reading this quote about Reid's opinion regarding Thomas and Scalia. I maybe letting my cynical side take over, but my spidey-sense tells me he probably hasn't read one word that either man has written.


2 posted on 12/09/2004 1:33:49 AM PST by shibumi (John Galt is alive and well. He tends bar in a casino restaurant.)
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To: shibumi

Bingo


3 posted on 12/09/2004 1:39:48 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

BUMP!!!
Reid is a daft, pompous windbag.
Oh, and a scumbag, too, of course.


4 posted on 12/09/2004 1:40:17 AM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: shibumi

He probably never heard of either them until his aide prepped him five minutes before going on "Meet the Press." He probably had to ask how many justices are on the Supreme Court.


5 posted on 12/09/2004 1:40:52 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: Lancey Howard

Yes, but he still doesn't annoy me as much as Kerry yet.


6 posted on 12/09/2004 1:41:53 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Regarding the annoying part - give it time.


7 posted on 12/09/2004 1:51:17 AM PST by shibumi (John Galt is alive and well. He tends bar in a casino restaurant.)
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To: Lancey Howard

Daschle lost so they put Reid in. But, this is what happens when you reinstitute the daft.


8 posted on 12/09/2004 1:56:24 AM PST by Enterprise (The left hates the Constitution. Islamic Fascism hates America. Natural allies.)
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To: nickcarraway; Lancey Howard

OK, I've been holding this in, but I'll let you guys see just how cynical I really am.

I believe this whole "Thomas is dumb, Scalia is smart" thing is a set-up. If The President falls for it, he sends up Scalia as the nominee. Then, under the light of the Senate confirmation hearing - (SHOCK and AWE) - we find out aspects of Scalia's opinions and character that the Dim Senators were "unaware" of until that very moment. Then they fall back on "we supported the President in the spirit of bi-partisanship until we knew the real truth" and send the administration scrambling, playing catch-up.

Maybe I'm being paranoid, but being paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get you!

(Or, as Thufir Hawat once said "a feint within a feint".)


9 posted on 12/09/2004 2:01:58 AM PST by shibumi (John Galt is alive and well. He tends bar in a casino restaurant.)
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To: nickcarraway
. . . preposterosity . . .

LOL! It is ludicrous, though, ain't it? How long has he been in the Senate. Don't know myself, but in years of following politics closely, I've only heard mention of him once in a blue moon. The guy's even more of a mediocrity than the rats' last candidate for pres, old what's his name. LOL, 2008's gonna be fun.

10 posted on 12/09/2004 2:05:25 AM PST by LibWhacker
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To: nickcarraway

Harry M. Reid is brand spanking new to the job and already I despise him.


11 posted on 12/09/2004 2:08:55 AM PST by Larry381 (Wanted: Country willing to import thousands of whining liberals-Will pay steerage charges)
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To: Larry381

I love the way Mr. Reid talks about "Wall Street fat cats."


12 posted on 12/09/2004 2:33:29 AM PST by ReadyNow
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To: nickcarraway

wouldn't Reid be an example of a Corollary to Murphy's Law?

By default he's landed in a position he is totally unqualified for.

He's reached his level of incompetence, and now the world can see it, we just didn't know what a fool he was before.

Rascality has limits; stupidity has none.
Napoleon


13 posted on 12/09/2004 2:40:45 AM PST by Smocker
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To: nickcarraway
I would be very interested to see the response from the large majority of African-Americans who are democrats should Justice Thomas be nominated for Chief Justice.

Will they follow their masters at the dnc and start with the "Uncle Tom" stuff or will they recognize what a great opportunity and honor it would be to have a brother as Chief Justice.
14 posted on 12/09/2004 2:47:41 AM PST by Beckwith (John Kerry is now a kept man . . .)
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To: nickcarraway

Senator Reid will replace the ever-purring Senator Tom Daschle

Can it be possible that Daschle is being replaced by someone even more evil?


15 posted on 12/09/2004 2:57:00 AM PST by garylmoore (God Bless you W, you have prevailed.)
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16 posted on 12/09/2004 3:21:06 AM PST by WSGilcrest (go home now)
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To: garylmoore
Can it be possible that Daschle is being replaced by someone even more evil?

Nahhh, just more stupid.
17 posted on 12/09/2004 3:26:03 AM PST by Mad Mammoth
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To: garylmoore; cyborg; Lancey Howard; Darksheare; Conspiracy Guy; Americanwolf; MeekOneGOP; ...
Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd:

Excuse me for a moment, Tim. PLLLLLLPPPPT!

(Blows gigantic booger onto lapel of suit. Wipes nostril with Tim Russert's pie chart illustration of G.D.P. growth since President Bush took office.)

Now, I'd like to quote some Tacitus for you ig'nt folks at home...

18 posted on 12/09/2004 3:27:07 AM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham (Why did it take me so long to come up with a new tag-line, huh?! What's up with that?)
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To: Smocker

"wouldn't Reid be an example of a Corollary to Murphy's Law?"

Think you mean the Peter Principle...


19 posted on 12/09/2004 3:37:30 AM PST by DJ Frisat (Hand me the duct tape before my head explodes...)
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To: GeronL; 4ConservativeJustices; SirLurkedalot; trussell; BJClinton; Clemenza; tuliptree76; ...
Amusing mockery of our favorite Klansman/Dem. senatorial "statesman."

Post #18.

20 posted on 12/09/2004 3:43:44 AM PST by Do not dub me shapka broham (Why did it take me so long to come up with a new tag-line, huh?! What's up with that?)
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