REID: Well… [shrug] … they can call it whatever they want. Um … Romney didn’t win, did he?

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) fired back at Republicans accusing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) of lying about a Bain Capital investor telling him that Mitt Romney hadn't paid taxes in 10 years. They don’t know what they're talking about, Pelosi says.

"Harry Reid made a statement that is true. Somebody told him. It is a fact," Pelosi told The Huffington Post in a Sunday interview. "Whether he did or not can easily be disposed of: Mitt Romney can release his tax returns and show whether he paid taxes."

freeman3 wrote:First that what Reid says was wrong has not been established. We have not actually seen Romney's tax returns other than 2011. Secondly, even if the statement was wrong I certainly have no problem believing that someone told Reid that Romney had not paid taxes--I don't think he told a lie, he repeated something that turned out to be wrong.

freeman3 wrote:First, Republicans own McCarthyism--they don't get it to apply to Democrats as far as I am concerned. It's a ridiculous comparison, anyway. McCarthyism destroyed countless lifes based on no evidence. Reid repeating a rumor about Romney's taxes does not remotely compare to that.

Romney did pay a disgustingly low level of taxes given his incredible income-- that was the real story.

I am also not clear that Reid was shown to have lied, but that whatever was told him was wrong.

Republicans don't like him because was effective and stopped some of their insane policies.

I am not going to cry about that anytime soon. Republicans who absolutely would not work with the president, threatened to default on our debt, helping the wealthy against the poor and middle-class. If only we could say good riddance to them, at least the Tea Party crazies..

freeman3 wrote:See, I haven't gone conservative...

Reid is both fearless and shameless, a formidable combination for his adversaries,
especially now that he has nothing to lose. I’m not convinced this is his last term (I
consider it unlikely), but 2016 is a long time from now. And this surely won't hurt Reid
among his Democratic caucus, whose members surely marvel that their leader is willing
to say things they only muse about. And judging by the mindless, seal-like behavior of
many Democratic partisans – you go, senator! – Reid’s “I heard this from someone but I
can’t tell you who” approach is only revving up the base.

Folks, these are not the rantings of an idiot savant, but the actions of a man with two,
contradictory sides. Reid can be the frothing attack dog willing to call a president a “liar”
and a “loser” just as easily as he can be the consummate inside Club of 100 player able to
stroke Republicans to cut deals across the aisle. But more to the point here, Reid is the
very careless pol with the media, regularly making intemperate remarks that make his
staff cringe, but he’s also the coolly calculating pol who always – always -- has a method
to his apparent madness.

Reid knows EXACTLY what he is doing on the Romney tax returns – trying to create so
much pressure that the candidate has to release more of his tax records. Whether or not
Reid really has an “extremely credible source” who told him Romney did not pay taxes
for 10 years is not the point.

He doesn’t care about being criticized for using the same tactics that Joe McCarthy used
or, in the formulation of some overheating Republicans, that were employed at the Salem
witch trials. He doesn’t care that an avalanche of ridicule and obloquy is raining down on
him for his outrageous statements – ones he continues to repeat almost daily. And he
doesn’t care that almost no one is joining him to repeat these blithe allegations-without-
proof about the Republican presidential nominee.

Is there anything more dangerous than a man who does not care?

And a related question: Is there anything more sadly desperate than a party that will do
anything not to talk about the economy and to change the subject to Mitt Romney’s
wealth?

Don’t misunderstand: I think Romney should release more tax returns. I don’t even think
that should be a question.

But I don’t think anyone -- the Senate majority leader or lesser beings – should be able to
make unsupportable statements about how much Romney has paid, simply to pressure
him to release more information. As a public figure who had had to endure vicious and
often tenuous allegations – in the 1970s, he was even linked to organized crime after a
mobster boasted of having him in his pocket – you would think Reid would be more
sensitive to such tactics. I have an extremely credible source who says he is not.

I suppose it’s possible that someday we may learn Romney did not pay taxes for 10 years
– although I highly doubt it considering the presumptive GOP nominee’s vehement
denials. But even that would not justify Reid’s grotesque rumormongering.

It’s one thing to use every trick in the book to win a campaign or to carelessly spout
invective about other public figures. But it’s quite another thing for one of the most
powerful Democrats in the country to make serious assertions about a Republican
presidential candidate, without any proof and without a named source.

Sometimes the ends do not justify the means, even in the political swamp. Someone
needs to draw the line for Reid since he is so unable to draw one for himself.

Doctor Fate wrote:However, his recent beating by the mob suggests life may not be easy for him in retirement.

If he wasn't beaten by the mob for failing to deliver on a promise let him prove it. He sure didn't suffer those injuries falling during exercise.

geojanes wrote:

Doctor Fate wrote:However, his recent beating by the mob suggests life may not be easy for him in retirement.

If he wasn't beaten by the mob for failing to deliver on a promise let him prove it. He sure didn't suffer those injuries falling during exercise.

OK, you're making a point here about repeating a lie, right? Or are you being serious?