uring the presidential election of 2012, then Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the floor of that august body and gravely inveighed against GOP nominee Mitt Romney: “So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for ten years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t.”
The one who should have been compelled to prove something was Sen. Reid, because he was lying through his teeth. Nonetheless, the media repeated the accusation—after all, it had been entered in the official Senate record, where no one would ever dissemble. The Romney campaign never really recovered from it, as incumbent President Barack Obama coasted to re-election.
In 2015, long after Romney’s candidacy had been safely dispatched, retiring Sen. Reid was asked if he regretted what had since been proven to be a deliberate falsehood. He waxed practical: “Well, they can call it whatever they want. Romney didn’t win, did he?”
This sordid vignette of an unrepentant, successful Senate smear merchant is instructive as to the current rise of postmodern progressive socialism.
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