Harry Reid's Smear Campaign

Laura Ingraham is incensed. This morning on her radio show, she played Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's speech before the Senate in which he impugned the character of judicial nominee, Henry Saad. Laura's website links to a Washington Times article by Charles Hurt (here), which spells out the offensive part of Sen. Reid's speech.

Hurt quotes Reid, "'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."

The problem is not what's in Henry Saad's confidential FBI file, but the fact that Senator Reid even knows about it, let alone that he's talking about it on the Senate floor.

As Hurt (and Laura on her show) explains, "Furthermore, a "Memorandum of Understanding" covering the use of FBI background reports limits access to committee members and the nominee's home-state senators. Mr. Reid would fall into neither category."

So Harry Reid has absolutely no business knowing what's in the confidential FBI file on judicial nominees, but he claims to know what's in the FBI file of a 6th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee. And in spite of the fact that Senate rules call for expulsion of senators who "disclose the secret or confidential business or proceedings of the Senate, including the business and proceedings of the committees, subcommittees, and offices of the Senate," Harry Reid has come right up to the line this rule has drawn (Standing Rule of the Senate 29, Section 5), and he may have crossed it.

If Reid has crossed that line, he needs to be expelled from the Senate, or at the very least stripped of his leadership post. And whoever gave Reid access to the FBI file(s) of nominees should be fired. If Reid has not actually seen the FBI file (which he shouldn't have but is implying that he has), then he's a liar intent on slandering and smearing a judicial nominee, and he should be censured and stripped of his leadership post.

The issue here is that Reid has raised accusations against one of President Bush's nominees in a forum and manner that leaves the accused (Henry Saad) completely without recourse. There are no charges that Saad can refute, because Reid didn't spell out anything specific. And because Saad has never seen, and is not permitted to see, the FBI files on him, he has no idea what charges might be in it that he could attempt to refute on his own.

This is an ugly, vicious, mean-spirited, political attack on the part of the Democratic leadership. Where is the outcry from the Republicans? Where is the call for Reid's removal from leadership and the Senate?

And where is the media? The Washington Times covered the story (link above), but CNN is silent, Fox News is silent, CBS News is silent, NBC News is silent, the New York Times is silent, and the Los Angeles Times is silent. ABC News gives it a brief mention at the end of page 2/top of page 3 of their article on the filibuster debates.

ConfirmThem.com has links to the Senate's contact information. Be sure to contact your senator about this, including Majority Leader Bill Frist to urge them to take action agaisnt Senator Reid. Plus, ConfirmThem has the latest on judicial nominees and an easy link to email the 5 key senators who are waffling about whether to change the Senate rules so the nominees can be allowed to come to an up-or-down vote.