Patterico's Pontifications

5/19/2006

Who’s the Racist Again?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:44 am



So Harry Reid says that the amendment to make English our national language is racist.

Harry Reid, recall, once criticized (black) Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for writing a dissent in a case called “Hillside” that was, Reid said, written at an eighth-grade level. Thomas’s dissent was far inferior, Reid said, to the clearly reasoned dissent written in the same case by (white) Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Reid called Thomas an “embarrassment.” Unfortunately for Reid, a quick look at the law books showed that Scalia didn’t write a dissent in the Hillside case.

Reid, pressed on the inconsistency, insisted that Scalia’s opinion was better, even though Scalia hadn’t written one. Eugene Volokh said:

Instead of pointing to and justifying an honest disagreement about law or jurisprudence, Senator Reid makes unfounded assertions of incompetence — and backs them up with false statements (about Hillside) and mischaracterizations (that the “whole point” of his preferring Scalia to Thomas is that Scalia’s opinions are “very logical” and Thomas’s aren’t).

Reid, of all people, should not casually throw around the word “racist.”

17 Responses to “Who’s the Racist Again?”

  1. “facts are stupid things.” –ronald reagan

    assistant devil's advocate (053f14)

  2. […] Others: Patterico Outside the Beltway Memorandum posted by: The Editors @ 3:10 pm May 18, 2006 […]

    The Unalienable Right » Senator Reid: A preference for English is “racist”? (7644ea)

  3. After listening to him for the last couple years, I think Harry should just avoid words with more than one syllable.

    kev (8503b8)

  4. […] Hat Tip: Patterico. No responses to ‘What Do Judge Boyle and 63 U.S. Senators Have in Common?’. RSS feed for comments and Trackback URI for ‘What Do Judge Boyle and 63 U.S. Senators Have in Common?’. […]

    Confirm Them » What Do Judge Boyle and 63 U.S. Senators Have in Common? (b78190)

  5. Harry Reid es loco en la cabesa.

    PCD (fd056b)

  6. Saying on a fortune cookie:

    The wise man knows everything
    The shrewd man knows everyone

    Maybe Reid is shrewd – but not so wise.

    Psyberian (dd13d6)

  7. […] More links? PoliPundit reaches down into the memory hole and retrieves a page from Mel Martinez’s old campaign website that had mysteriously been deleted. Surely an accident. Patterico thanks Harry Reid for his concerns about racism but notes that Reid maybe isn’t the best guy to be throwing that particular charge around. The United Kingdom takes a head count and finds that there might be a few more immigrants in the country than they’d previously estimated. And reader David S. follows up on my post about illegals potentially voting in North Carolina and finds there are penalties already on the books for that sort of thing. Which won’t be enforced, of course. […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Bush supports and opposes Senate votes on national language (d4224a)

  8. […] More links? PoliPundit reaches down into the memory hole and retrieves a page from Mel Martinez’s old campaign website that had mysteriously been deleted. Surely an accident. Patterico thanks Harry Reid for his concerns about racism but notes that Reid maybe isn’t the best guy to be throwing that particular charge around. The United Kingdom takes a head count and finds that there might be a few more immigrants in the country than they’d previously estimated. And reader David S. follows up on my post about illegals potentially voting in North Carolina and finds there are penalties already on the books for that sort of thing. Which won’t be enforced, of course. […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » Bush supports and opposes Senate votes on national language (d4224a)

  9. When you’re the walking brain dead and boxed in a corner, do what all racist do, scream racism.

    Scrapiron (a90377)

  10. To paraphrase the Assistant Devil’s Advocate (ADA has a nice ring to it–must be a prosecutor somewhere)Reagan qoute above, “Senators from Searchlight are Stupid Things”. Reid proves that whenever he opens his mouth. If he weren’t such a snarky little fellow, it would be comforting to know that a guy that dumb can get that far.

    Mike Myers (3a4363)

  11. List of Senate racists (via Instapundit)

    “Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Mark Dayton, Tom Harkin, John Kerry, Pat Leahy, Carl Levin, Barbara Mikulski, Harry Reid, New York’s other senator, Debbie Stabenow and Ron Wyden.”

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  12. Maybe the next time Harry Reid stands for re-election to his Senate seat in Washington, the good people from Nevada will take a tip from the ad, “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas.”
    I wish Harry Reid a long life in obscurity.

    Paul Albers (7494b1)

  13. Harry Reid won by a slim margin in 2004 only because there were so many new arrivals in Nevada who didn’t know he was a Democrat. You see, Senator Reid declined to identify his party affiliation in his campaign ads. Harry Reid may be a two faced, low-down, belly crawling, yellow dog, but when the chips are down, he’s smart enough to know how to deal from the bottom of the deck.

    Black Jack (d8da01)

  14. Patrick,
    I was reading “The Caine Mutiny”last summer.This reminds me of a vignette where Capt.Reid(sorry,Queeg) disparages a memo by a Lt.Keefer as far inferior to his subordinate’s in terms of clarity,etc.Since Keefer is a novelist,it’s meant to sting his ego.However,Keefer had written his subordinate’s memo.
    Reid,et al take their cue from the identity of the author,not the content being discussed.And,not to beat the thing about intellect to death,but among the Democratic senators named above,there are a lot who are,well,not bright.I nominate Sen Stabenow as the most likely to have sub-zero SATs,although Biden may have cheated on his.But look at the list of dimwits elected by the Democrats:Mikulski,Boxer-wait.I must have to reconsider who is the stupidest US senator,Patty Murray,Mark Dayton,and wht’s is name from Massachusetts

    Lincoln (fce4cc)

  15. English To Be Made The Official U.S. Muffin

    No word on whether Harry Reid has denounced this as racist yet:“With lots of nooks and crannies to hold the…

    Dean's World (fa8fba)

  16. Harry Reid won by a slim margin in 2004

    Uh, no, he didn’t. He won 61% to 35% for his opponent. That’s not a slim margin by any stretch of the imagination.

    Steverino (a5637c)


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