The GOP lie machine gears up again

He scares Republicans

Reid cites FBI file on judicial pick
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Minority Leader Harry Reid strayed from his prepared remarks on the Senate floor yesterday and promised to continue opposing one of President Bush's judicial nominees based on "a problem" he said is in the nominee's "confidential report from the FBI."

Those highly confidential reports are filed on all judicial nominees, and severe sanctions apply to anyone who discloses their contents. Less clear is whether a senator could face sanctions for characterizing the content of such files.

"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."

Republicans on Capitol Hill weren't saying much publicly, but several denounced the action privately as an "underhanded smear" or worse.

LOL. Are they fucking kidding? No, seriously, are they kidding?

They should know what an underhanded smear is. After all, Julie Hiatt Steele was smeared for a couple of years. How long did it take the White House Travel Office mess to be cleared up? So, how many times was Bill Clinton accused of a) rape, b) having an illegitimate child, c) coke fueled murders? Rememebr the "Clinton List" of 50 people he supposedly had killed? Didn't Gary Aldrich write the most insane book, with stories about dildos on the Christmas trees in the White House and other wingnut shit? Smear anyone?

It seems like Susan MacDougal was accused of being a coconspirator with Bill Clinton for years with NO evidence. All manner of confidential information leaked from Ken Starr's office when he was chasing Clinton, Hillary Clinton was accused of murder on the radio. And THIS is an issue?

Wow, a problem. Now, what exactly does that mean? He likes to suck teenage dick? He cheated people out of money? If that is disclosing the content of an FBI file, a lot of GOP Seantors needed to be expelled from the Senate in 1998.

Oh and the reporter pumps his source like a bike tire:

Charles Hurt: Manuel Miranda’s Tool
by Matt Singer

Who is Charles Hurt? Well, he’s the guy who wrote the hatchet piece on Harry Reid that came out tonight.

But more important, he’s Manuel Miranda’s tool. Who is Miranda? He’s one of Hurt’s “sources.” Specifically, he’s the source who says Congress should censure Reid and that his church should be ashamed of him.

You may remember Miranda from such wacky Republican capers as “jacking stuff from Ted Kennedy’s computer” and “ending Senate tradition as we know it.”

Where else does he pop up? Well, just a few weeks ago, Hurt relied on Miranda to threaten John McCain’s Presidential hopes if McCain didn’t go nuclear.

Before that, Miranda was Hurt’s source for a story on those memos he stole.

Miranda was Hurt’s source for a story on how the Democrats’ filibusters ignore the will of the people.

And, as Media Matters has noted, Hurt ignores his involvement in scandals when reporting on him.

To top it all off, Hurt wrote a glowing profile of Miranda.

More on Hurt’s key source: Orrin Hatch calls him unethical.

Oh and for good measure, Hurt's source is being investigated for stealing thousands of files off of the Democratic computer systems in the Senate. And of course, this issue about the judge ran in Michigan papers a year ago.

The real problem is that Harry Reid isn't Tom Daschle. He's playing for keeps, so if they can tie him down with this nonsense, all the better for them. See, Reid isn't widely known outside of the blogs and politics. So if they can define him like they did John Kerry, they can limit his effectiveness.

They are full of shit, if they weren't, they wouldn't use their house bitch at the WashTimes to pump this silly story.

posted by Steve @ 1:11:00 AM