A disgusting display by a politician without honor

I suppose I should be used to hypocrisy, dishonesty and disingenuousness on the part of our politicians. Far too many of them are guilty of such things, irrespective of their party, philosophy or seniority. There are few exceptions.

However, one politician's breathtaking cynicism has set a new low even for his already dismal record. I refer, of course, to the current Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D - Nevada). I'll let Jonah Goldberg describe his nauseating hypocrisy.

In 2007, the Democrats controlling the Senate were fed up with George W. Bush's recess appointments. Majority Leader Reid, feigning great sadness over the sorry state of our republic, resorted to the extraordinary tactic of keeping the Senate in pro-forma session so as to prevent the imperial Bush from doing an end-run around the confirmation process. The move was celebrated by liberal commentators as a brave and necessary assertion of congressional power and was supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Fast-forward to this week. The Senate has once again been in pro-forma session in order to keep President Obama from making recess appointments. Reid agreed to the tactic as part of negotiations with Republicans last year.

Arguing that the maneuver is nothing more than a gimmick, Obama ignored the Senate's authority and appointed Richard Cordray to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by the Dodd-Frank legislation allegedly to prevent the excesses that led to the financial crisis. If it wasn't clear enough that the appointment was nakedly political, Obama made the announcement at a campaign rally in the swing state of Ohio, Cordray's home state.

With the alacrity one normally associates with court jesters and royal spittoon cleaners, Reid immediately endorsed the president's decision, accepting the logic that calls a maneuver he invented a sham.

. . .

So here we have Reid, a man who tried to enter the national stage by promising to be an honorable foe of the imperial presidency and the metastasizing growth of federal bureaucracies, thriving on the national stage by enabling exactly those trends when it suits his party. And it all it cost was his honor.

There's more at the link.

If I lived in Nevada, and were represented by this man, I'd hang my head in shame at the ignominy he'd just brought to my state. That's not an anti-Democratic Party perspective, by the way: it would apply irrespective of Reid's political affiliation. As Mr. Goldberg says, he's just demonstrated that he's a man without honor. That's why he can't be relied upon to do the honorable thing, and resign . . . he wouldn't understand or recognize 'honor' if it slapped him in the face!





Peter