Senate Democractic leader Harry Reid doesn’t look much like a Senator. He looks more like a small town accountant or shopkeeper which, judging from these remarks he made last night about one of the stalled judicial nominees, he may have been better suited for than lawmaker:

“Henry Saad would have been filibustered anyway,” Mr. Reid said on the floor yesterday, about the Michigan Appeals Court judge who is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

“All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree that there is a problem there,” Mr. Reid continued.

Republican staff members and supporters of Mr. Bush’s nominees were outraged.

“Can you think of a better way to trash someone’s reputation?” Sean Rushton of the conservative Committee for Justice asked after seeing a transcript of the remarks. “Say that there is bad stuff from an FBI investigation in a file somewhere and leave that hanging. This is character assassination of the lowest order and completely improper.”

(HT: Captains Quarters)

This isn’t McCarthyism; it’s a Stalinist purge.

Back in the 1930’s, Stalin and his minions destroyed the Red Army by bringing charges against ideologically suspect officers. They did this by using hearsay and character assassination while not producing any documents that the defendent could question in an attempt to clear himself. As a result, tens of thousands of Red Army officers were slaughtered - officers Stalin could have used a few short years later when Hitler attacked.

Forget the gross violation of Senate rules that prevent Senators from revealing anything about the contents of an FBI file. Simple common decency would preclude all but the most virulently partisan to reveal their contents. The Captain correctly points out what’s contained in those raw files:

FBI clearance files contain raw data from every interview the agency conducts with people known to the person applying for the clearance. Anything said goes into the file. The FBI does not filter the information, and will usually investigate criminal activity suggested by the interview only if they find anything substantial. What this means, especially in political appointments, is that a fair amount of gossipy but usually exaggerated or false information gets entered into the file and later mentioned in the file’s summary.

This is one move by Reid that even the MSM can’t ignore. Here are some other gems by Reid that somehow never quite landed him in hot water with the press (or his own party for that matter):

1. Called President Bush a “loser” while the President was out of the country then apologized, and then withdrew the apology.

2. Said of Janice Rogers Brown, another Circuit Court nominee: “She Is A Woman Who Wants To Take Us Back To The Civil War days.”

3. Said of Justice Clarence Thomas: “I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written. I don’t… I just don’t think that he’s done a good job as a Supreme Court justice.”

4. Called the President a “liar”

5. Said of Alan Greenspan: “I Think [Alan Greenspan's] One Of The Biggest Political Hacks We Have In Washington.”

I’d say that Senator Reid is an embarrassment to the Democratic party except there’s no way you can embarass people who have no shame in the first place. If I were Senator Frist I’d introduce a motion of censure against the Senator from Nevada.

I doubt whether it would phase that gentleman in the least. Because, like the man he’s imitating, the Senator from Wisconsin who long ago lent his name to the most odious of practices in democratic governance, he fails to “get it.”

Where’s Joe Welch when you need him?

Welch: Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.

Welch: I’ll say it hurts!

UPDATE

Ace says it’s time to go nuclear:

Reid can’t be held legally accountable for any of this, as the Constitution immunizes Congressmen from legal consequences from any statement made in Congress. But I’d sure like someone to bait Reid into repeating his remarks outside of Congress.

It’s time to go nuclear. I know nothing about Saad, and of course I know even less about what dirt the FBI may have dug up on him, but it is clear that the Democrats have made the judiciary their last redoubt. It’s well past time to drain that swamp.

Yup.

And Michelle Malkin does her usual great job of rounding up media and blog reaction to “Dirty Harry” Reid’s diarrhea of the mouth.”

Cross Posted at Blogger News Network