Harry Reid a hypocrite?
By Charles Bird Posted in Policy — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
In other news, the sun rose in the East this morning. - Moe Lane
This is a "dog bites man" story, but it bears noting anyway. Jonathan Adler, remarking on Senator Harry Reid's regret that Samuel Alito is Supreme Court justice:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was among those who denounced yesterday's Supreme Court ruling upholding the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Act. Commenting on the decision, Reid said "A lot of us wish that Alito weren't there and O'Connor were there," indicating his desire that there has been a fifth vote to invalidate the statute, as Justice O'Connor had provided the fifth vote to invalidate Nebraska's partial-birth abortion ban in Stenberg v. Carhart.
What is curious about Reid's statement, as NPR and some news outlets have noted, is not Reid's criticism of Alito -- Reid opposed Alito's confirmation -- but the fact that Reid supported, and voted for, the federal statute upheld in yesterday's decision. Reid was one of 17 Senate Democrats voting in favor of the bill in 2003. Reid also voted in favor of a ban on partial-birth abortion in 1999 (see here) and, as indicated in this "Meet the Press" interview, Reid was one of only two Democratic Senators to vote against a resolution reaffirming Senate support for the holding of Roe v. Wade.
So, despite his repeated support of legislative restrictions on abortion, Reid's latest comment suggests that he believes the Supreme Court's decision was regrettable and wrongly decided, and that a law that he supported is unconstitutional. To me, the latter is of greater concern. Call me old fashioned, but I believe that if a member of the Senate believes a law is unconstitutional, he or she should vote against it.
It truly is a shame that such an inept and dishonest politician is Senate Majority Leader.
I thought Harry and the Pope were tight on issues. After all, he was willing to outsource foreign and military policy to the Pope after the Easter address.
Has he completely missed the Pope's comments on abortion?
...Here's the link:
http://patterico.com/2007/04/18/how-quickly-harry-forgets-his-own-vote/
Patterico's money question:
"Which raises the question of whether he (Reid) makes a habit of voting for bills he deems to be unconstitutional."
Well, Harry. Do you?
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"We want great men who, when fortune frowns, will not be discouraged." - Colonel Henry Knox
After all, he signed CFR with the expectation that SCOTUS would kill it.
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Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
you think are unconstitutional in the hopes that the courts will strike it down.
Harry is indeed a hypocrit, given that Harry is considered a "pro life dem" well if what counts is a pro life dem means supporting or expecting the SCOTUS to support shoving scissors into the brains of half born infants, I am afraid of any of the pro choice dems.
Reid's now officially declared defeat in Iraq. It's time we put him out of our misery.
is that people like Adler and NPR are pointing it out.
Perhaps they want to get rid of Reid because they feel he's way too conservative to be the leader of the Senate Democrats. Why should someone that out of step with them be their leader?