In a story published early this morning by Manu Raju at the Politico which is primarily about Senate Majority Harry Reid's plans to aggressively pursue reelection in 2016, the Nevada senator took shots at the establishment press for "trying so hard to be fair that you are unfair."
Proving Reid wrong in real time, Raju failed to mention Reid's response last week to a question by Dana Bash at CNN — which by the way, as Matt Hadro at NewsBusters noted earlier today, has been pounding Republicans ever since as if to compensate. Bash asked Reid if it would be worth it to continue to fund clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health if doing so could help one child with cancer. His answer, on tape: "Why would we want to do that?" Excerpts from the Raju's report follow the jump (HT Ed Driscoll; bolds are mine):
Harry Reid talks tough, ramps up for 2016
Republicans are eager for November 2016 — and not just because Barack Obama’s presidency will be in its final days.
... Reid knows it — and he’s quietly plotting his plans more than three years out.
... Reid is becoming even more polarizing thanks to his pugnacious stand during the shutdown fight. His strategy is keeping Democrats together, which is no easy task. But removing him from his spot as the powerful majority leader has become a leading Republican campaign pitch in the run-up to the 2014 midterms, two years before he’ll be the top GOP target in the country during his own race.
... Reid is bullish about Democrats’ prospects in 2014 — even believing the party may pick up seats next year — and he thinks the Republicans’ handling of the government shutdown has only made the GOP weaker.
“This is killing the Republicans,” Reid said.
... Asked about some of his rhetoric, Reid seemed to acknowledge his reputation for gaffes but was unapologetic about his tough talk.
But Reid claims he’s not worried if his handling of the crisis has worsened his already anemic poll numbers back home or if it invites a strong prospective GOP challenger in 2016 — whether it’s (Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval) Sandoval or anyone else.
... He argued that no objective analysis could conclude that Democrats are at fault for the shutdown given that he agreed to a lower spending level to win the support of Republicans, who later decided to tie the government funding battle to their long-standing demands to overhaul the health care law.
“You and other journalists have a real shortcoming in that you are trying so hard to be fair that you are unfair,” Reid said. “Democrats have had almost nothing to do with the problems here. It’s all Republicans.”
Actually, House Republicans led by John Boehner are not issuing "long-standing demands to overhaul the health care law," and Politico's Raju should know that. They are currently seeking a one-year deferral of the individual mandate to put individuals on the same footing as businesses, which have already gained a one-year deferral unilaterally granted by the President Obama.
We all know that the press has been more than fair to the Obama, Democrats and the left. Imagine how Harry Reid would feel if CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC didn't have his back 99% of the time.
It's enough to make you wonder, as Driscoll does in a separate post, whether the "hysterical media overreach" is working to Republicans' advantage.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
