After nearly 30 years ensconced in Washington’s heady corridors of political power, Harry Reid has worn out his threadbare welcome. The time has come for him to be removed. Assuredly from his lofty position as Senate Majority Leader. Perhaps even from the Senate, itself.
The decades have taken a heavy toll on the aging politician, who began his lengthy career as a controversial Vegas gambling czar. His most recent gaffe is just the latest in a series of unseemly actions that would have seen other once proud, conscientious public servants recusing themselves from the public arena so as not to further diminish their already frayed public image.
The weekend news that Reid attributed much of Barack Obama’s political success to his being a “light-skinned” African-American who spoke with “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one” reveals a man who in an earlier day and age may have been kindly referred to as “in his dotage.” Others may have a more descriptive term for Reid’s bizarre behavior. But, “dotage” seems sufficient. And entirely accurate.
After all, this is the increasingly irascible politician who in early August angrily accused those protesting this socialized medicine bill as “attempting to sabotage the democratic process.” To the crotchety Reid, theirs were “nothing more than destructive efforts to interrupt a debate.”
So much for legitimate dissent and the First Amendment “Freedom of Assembly.”
Only a few days later, Reid went so far as to invent his own chilling term for those who dared dissent from his dogma. To him, they were “evil-mongers,” spreading “lies, innuendo, and rumor.” Gently reminded that no such term actually existed, a strangely euphoric Reid exclaimed, “It was original with me!”
And still there is more.
In early November, while introducing his Senate version of government health care take over, he cryptically proclaimed that the measure would “guarantee” the American people “the right to live free from the fear of illness and death.” Even the Good Book doesn’t promise that.
In early December, when the new $621 million Capital Visitors Center opened, Reid applauded the opening with embarrassing observation, “My staff tells me not to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway. In the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it’s true.” His staff was right – and a man more in control of his faculties would have listened.
In late December, as the debate over health care reached its peak, the increasingly moody Reid displayed a shocking disregard for the most basic rules of the Senate. When Sen. Tom Coburn objected to a request that an amendment be accepted by Unanimous Consent, Rule XV, paragraph 1, of the Senate parliamentary guide required that the amendment be read in its entirety. Ignoring the body’s own rules, a petulant Reid overrode 200 years of Senate tradition.
Now, continuing in what has clearly emerged as a disquieting pattern of eccentric behavior, Reid has been exposed as hurling racial insults entirely at odds with the mood, the mores, and the manners of modern-day America. Simply put, he has lost touch.
There is nothing shameful about growing old, or the vicissitudes of age. As Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, “Unto everything, there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” Harry Reid has had his season. He served his purpose. And the time has come for him to give way to those better equipped to lead in times that have passed him by.
He would do well to exit now, stage left, and bring no further embarrassment to himself, his family, his party, his state, or his country. Barring such a graceful exit, he should be removed by those in the Democrat Party who value his time of service and wish to protect what remains of his once proud image. He – and the American people – deserve as much.
