Can Harry come clean?

The recent calls from Nevada’s embarrassing senior Senator, Harry Reid, for President Bush to ‘come clean’ in the upcoming State of the Union is the height of hypocrisy.  Reid’s stances on critical issues are a volatile mix of disingenuousness, misleading statements and outright lies.  Let’s take a moment to evaluate them.

National Defense

The nation is at war and 9/11 established that US soil is a battlefield in this war.  As a former Army Military Intelligence Officer and JAG, I know that no one in the military chain of command, including the Commander in Chief, needs a warrant to collect battlefield intelligence on our enemies.  Communications between our enemies outside the United States with someone in the United States should be monitored.  Presidents have done this in the past and Americans are grateful that President Bush is using these inherent powers to prevent further terrorists attacks. Fighting a war is not the same as investigating a criminal act and those who continue to misapply criminal procedures to the battlefield are out of touch with reality. 

Reid and the entire democrat ‘leadership’ want to treat war as a criminal proceeding and use the war for partisan advantage.  Reid denounced the administration for not doing enough to defend the country against terrorism and then proudly announced that he killed the Patriot Act.  Reid howled when Las Vegas was not identified as a potential terrorist target, but he then condemns the very Terrorist Surveillance Program that would provide the intelligence necessary to stop a planned attack.  Reid voted for the war in Iraq, but now claims he was misled by the pre-war intelligence.  He even pulled his closing the Senate stunt under the pretense that he cared about pre-war intelligence.  Before Congress voted for war, the entire National Intelligence Estimate was available for review by members of Congress, but Reid could not be bothered to even review that material.  Reid’s voting to send people to war without reviewing evidence before casting his vote and then claiming to have been misled by his own inaction is simply unconscionable.

Dependence upon foreign oil.  Reid grandstands that we need a national energy plan that frees us from dependence on foreign oil, yet opposes drilling in ANWR.  His repeated statements that Republicans want to damage the environment and that there is only a six month supply of oil in ANWR are simply false.  ANWR was set aside for drilling in 1980 by President Carter and a democrat controlled Congress.  For over 20 years, the estimated oil potential from ANWR has been 10.4 billion barrels.  This equates to 1 million barrels of oil a day, equivalent to 20% of our domestic consumption.  In 2004, the US imported oil from 37 different countries and ANWR would provide more than 32 of those countries.  ANWR would replace 2/3rds of the oil from Saudi Arabia, 77% of the oil from Venezuela and nearly all the oil from Nigeria.  Put in other terms, ANWR has enough oil to satisfy all of Nevada for the next 226 years.  By continuing to claim that there is only six months of oil in ANWR, Reid establishes conclusively that he will knowingly repeat false information for partisan advantage.

Lobbying

We do need to recognize that Reid has a certain expertise in lobbying, rivaling the scope of Jack Abramoff.  Since going to Washington, Reid has worked closely with his family to profit from the legislative process.  During a four year period, Reid family members collected more than $2 million in lobbying fees from special interest groups that the Reid family represented and Senator Reid helped. 

Although he initially denied receiving any Abramoff affiliated funds, the truth is that Reid actually received over $68,000.  His next story was that his receipt of Abramoff affiliated funds was legal, but smaller amounts given to Republican under identical circumstances were corrupt.  His next false story was that he only took money for Nevada tribes.  The truth is that Reid did not take a single dime from a Nevada tribe; Reid’s Abramoff tribes were in California, Louisiana, Michigan and Mississippi.  None of his false explanations explain Reid’s $15,000 in Abramoff lobbying money.  Reid’s long term legislative aide went to work for Abramoff and held fundraisers for Reid in Abramoff offices.  Reid’s stonewalling of his ties to Jack Abramoff probably will not be successful.  According to press reports, Reid is one of 5 lawmakers under investigation by the Justice Department for possible improprieties.

Partisan Nonsense

Reid ran for re-election with the slogan of ‘Independent like Nevada’ but since being elected he has only been independent from rational non partisan thought.  Just recently, he released a 27 page report condemning Republicans for doing what he did.  After libeling people with false charges, he apologized, claiming through an office spokesman that he had not even read the document before releasing it.  Apparently absorbing certain east coast liberal DNA and demonstrating that he has no fixed values, Reid was against an Alito filibuster, before he was for it.  Reid stumbles across the national stage, spouting partisan nonsense with the approach that someone made up my mind for me, so do not try to confuse me with facts.  While this may be exactly what democrats want to see in a leader, his actions are irresponsible and an embarrassment to the people of the Great State of Nevada.

Paul F. Adams

Chairman

Nevada Republican Party