You’ve just announced your entry into the wide-open GOP presidential primary. You haven’t even made it on to the bRight & Early weekly poll. You’re looking for endorsements, but is this the kind of cachet you want?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, reviled by conservatives for ushering Democratic legislation through Congress during Obama’s first two years in office, told reporters Tuesday that he’d pick Huntsman over GOP rival and fellow Mormon Mitt Romney.
“If I had a choice, I would favor Huntsman over Romney,” said Reid, who like Romney and Huntsman belongs to the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

“If I had a choice, I would favor Huntsman over Romney,” – Harry Reid — That’s going to make a great bumper sticker for someone’s campaign.

Tweet

A pair of Democratic Senators will not be running this fall.

North Dakota’s Byron Dorgan made the announcement yesterday.

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan stunned fellow Democrats when he decided not to seek re-election this fall and swung open a race that Republicans are convinced will help the GOP dent the Democrats’ fragile majority in the Senate.

Today Connecticut’s Christopher Dodd will announce his retirement.

Trouble-plagued Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who has for months been considered the most vulnerable Senate incumbent seeking re-election this year, will announce Wednesday that he is ending his bid for a sixth six-year term, a Democratic source confirmed.

Dodd will make the announcement at a press conference at his home in Connecticut.

I guess this moves Harry Reid up to the “the most vulnerable Senate incumbent” spot. Unless he wants to join the departure parade.

Tweet

Harry Reid says that Clinton and Obama are, ” ‘basically the same’ on every issue”, as if that’s a good thing.

With either Democrat in the White House, Reid said the first 100 days of the next Congress would bring a new energy policy, put the U.S. military well on a path out of Iraq and begin steps toward providing health care for uninsured Americans.

“Every issue, even though they talk, they are basically the same on every issue,” Reid told The Associated Press in dismissing concerns about party infighting stemming from the candidates’ criticism of each other.

In other words, with either Democrat in the White House, the first 100 days of the next Congress would bring an innovation and business crippling energy policy based on questionable science, put the U.S. military on a path toward defeat that ignores the people of Iraq, the Middle East, and the world, and begin steps toward making health care every bit as efficient as a trip to the DMV. Wonderful.

His greater point, however, is correct. There isn’t enough difference between the two to make any difference at all.

But the biggest laugh line was this one:

“Now we’re down to two — two of the smartest people, not just in the Senate, but in the country,” he said. “These are brilliant, academically talented people, … hardworking and honest.”

Yeah, and I’ve got more money than Bill Gates.

Tweet

I love this quote from Harry Reid regarding his success against the White House and President Bush.

“I have tried for seven years” to reach agreements with Bush on a variety of issues, but have repeatedly failed, said Reid, a Nevada Democrat, at a news conference.

You certainly have, Sen. Reid. Every time you do fail America is a little better off.

Tweet

I’m taking a look back at 2007 this week. It’s interesting to see just what I posted about, and what was going on through the year.

May — In May I celebrated my 2nd Blogiversary. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for over two and a half years.

On the 29th I looked at Hillary’s idea of economics. I particularly like this quote:

Fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right government policies.

Of course we’ve seen a glimpse of what those policies will be under a Hillary presidency (shudder) — Government run health care, nanny state social programs, etc.

June — Ah, the clueless hacks. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have done nothing with their new majorities, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t tried. Well, tried to insure defeat in Iraq that is.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi challenged the president over Iraq by sending him a letter, ahead of a White House meeting later on Wednesday.

“As many had forseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results,” the two leaders wrote.

“The increase in US forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation.

Not the only thing that duo has been wrong about in 2007

Tomorrow — July/August

Previously

• January/February
• March/April

Tweet

I’m taking a look back at 2007 this week. It’s interesting to see just what I posted about, and what was going on through the year.

January — First Cup 01.20.07

This was one of my first posts detailing the devastating condition Leftourettes™

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Leftourettes™ it is a malady that affects many on the left. It manifests itself in bursts of patently ridiculous statements. Indications are they just can’t help themselves. While it may appear that it occurs most often in the leadership, that is most likely just a function of their outbursts being more often recorded and reported. Here are a few recent examples:

Gee. I didn’t think much of Reid, Pelosi and other leftard’s rhetoric back in January. Imagine that. Some things haven’t changed much at all this year.

February — Great Line of the Day

A great quote from an AP story that still rings true today.

The developments on both sides of the Capitol reflected disarray in Democratic ranks on Iraq. Swept into power by voters clamoring for an end to the war, Democrats have seen their efforts stymied under realities more complicated than they found on the campaign trail.

That’s been true all year for the left. May 2008 bring more of the same.

Tomorrow — March/April

Tweet

Don Surber talking about Harry Reid:

“This guy couldn’t lead a kindergarten class to a candy store.”

Yup.

Tweet

I have been listening to Rush’s show today to see the results of the bidding. The winning bid was $2,100,100.00 by philanthropist Betty Casey. Her generosity and Rush’s matching donation will mean well over four million dollars for the Marine Corp – Law Enforcement Foundation.

But I am just astounded at the brazen attempt by Sen. Harry Reid to try to inject himself into the event. Ed Morrissey has this quote (via The Corner)

This week, Rush Limbaugh put the original copy of that letter up for auction on e-bay. Mr. President, we didn’t have time, or we could have gotten every senator to sign that letter. But he put the letter up for auction on e-bay and I think very, very constructively, left the proceeds of that it go to the Marine Corps law enforcements foundation. That provides scholarship assistance to marines and federal law enforcement personnel whose parents fall in the line of duty. What could be a more worthwhile cause? I think it’s really good that this money on e-bay is going to be raised for this purpose. …
Never did we think that this letter would bring money of this nature.

Ed has the exactly right take on this outrageous grand standing play by Reid.

So now Harry wants everyone to think that he participated in the fund-raising effort deliberately. He wants to take credit for over $4 million in donations that came from two people — the bidder, and the man Reid intended to smear and intimidate. That’s not just laughable, it’s pathetic.

Totally, sickeningly pathetic.

Tweet

Many of you are probably already aware that Rush Limbaugh is auctioning the letter signed by 41 U.S. members of Congress condeming Rush for remarks he didn’t make. The auction is going through the roof. Here’s some background:

You know that the proceeds here go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, which provide college scholarships for the children of Marines and federal law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Here’s something to think about, though. This is a historic document, a point that I have repeatedly made over and over and over again. But, since it is historical, think about what a great investment the Harry Reid letter is for a collector.

When you think about that, think about how livid he has to be. This was the last thing he expected to happen. He probably thought that letter would never, ever been seen by anybody, even though he read the letter on the Senate floor, and even though he issued a big press release about it, he probably never expected that letter to see the light of day. Now it’s all over the place because we got copies of it, a PDF file copy on our website that anybody can download and print out for free. It’s in full color, so if you have a color printer or have a way to take the PDF file and make it a color document on paper, everything is the same except the paper that it’s on. Now, there are people that collect autographs out there, and there are people who collect historical documents. This one is a huge winner for either collector. Look at the signatures on here, 41 of them. You have Barack Obama; you have Hillary Rodham Clinton; you have Chris Dodd — presidential candidates represented. You have Ted Kennedy; you have Harry Reid, 41 Democrats on this thing. These signatures, not only are they valuable, but the buyer, the high bidder, will have the most important thing to collectors, which is the thing that proves the authenticity of the document.

Nobody will have any doubt that this is authentic. This is huge in collecting circles. The letter and the briefcase, the attaché case from Halliburton, and the pictures of me presenting the letter on stage in Philadelphia last Thursday night, and the money that is being generated already here for the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, what a package; what an absolute package.

[Note: The link to Rush's site will not be active very long.]

And the ammount? At the time I’m writing this, 11:40am EDT — less than an hour and a half before the auction ends, the current bid is:

I can assure you that I was not the one who has upped the bid. Heck, I’m still working on getting the car out of the shop. I am really looking forward to listening to today’s broadcast. It should be priceless.

Help me fix the car and get back on the road!

Warning: file_get_contents(http://www.brightandearlyblog.com/car.txt) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
in /hermes/web07/b2554/as.brightan/public_html/wp-content/plugins/exec-php/includes/runtime.php(42) : eval()’d code on line 34
fine folks have donated a total of $. $ is still needed.
Thanks!

Tweet

Harry Reid is busy protecting his investment. Not in Nevada real estate, but his investment in losing the war in Iraq. He is trying to do this by picking a fight where none exists.

Senate Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid accused the White House of launching an attempt to mask candid testimony on the strategy.

“If the president is going to continue to ask American soldiers to fight in this civil war … then those closest to the situation on the ground must give Congress and the American people a frank and honest account of this war free of White House spin,” he said.

His strategy appears to be to make sure that the idea is placed in the minds of Americans that the upcoming report is flawed. He’ll get plenty of help from TOM and his fellow Surrender Monkeys. Facts are not a required part of that strategy.

But National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe denied there had been an attempt to limit testimony by Petraeus and Crocker, as reported by Thursday’s Washington Post.

“General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will testify to the Congress in both open as well as closed sessions,” he said in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is on vacation.

“It’s unfortunate that anyone would suggest that they would not do that; trying to start a fight where there really isn’t one, because this has always been the plan.”

Also interesting is the moaning over the report coming from the White House.

Democrats are also angry the assessment on the surge, required under US law, will be written at the White House, not personally by Crocker and Petraeus.

I guess they want the President to ignore the law as written.

The law requiring the Iraq war report by September 15 states that “the president shall submit” the assessment to Congress after consulting top military brass, the US ambassador to Baghdad and his national security team.

It does not specify that the report must be the direct work of Crocker and Petraeus.

Reid and the Surrender Monkeys must be very worried about this report containing good news. And that is sad indeed.

Tweet