Senator Harry Reid started a whole lot of trouble on the campaign trail when he told some Huffington Post reporters that he’d heard that Mitt Romney paid no taxes. As in zero. For an entire decade.
Now there are reasons to be skeptical of Reid’s account. As Dana Milbank pointed out, Reid’s record does not inspire confidence. He says he got this scoop in a phone call with a Bain Capital investor. There is no other documentation or information to substantiate the allegation. Of course, Romney could settle the issue by releasing his tax returns– which is presumably why Reid is doing this in the first place.
Indeed, much of the campaign reporting has focused on why Reid is doing this, and what it could mean. But there’s another theme in the coverage that’s far more unusual: The suggestion that Reid is just like Joe McCarthy. Yeah, that Joe McCarthy.
Here’s now CBS anchor Bob Schieffer posed the question on Face the Nation (8/5/12):
Isn’t this kind of like Joe McCarthy back in the era when he said, “I have here in my hand the names of 400 people in the State Department who are Communists”? It turned out he didn’t. And he was saying the way to prove that they’re not is for them to come forward here.
On ABC‘s This Week (8/5/12), George Will put this way:
Look, in 1950, Joe McCarthy went to West Virginia, didn’t know what to tell to the Women’s Republican Club of Wheeling, West Virginia, so he said I have in my hand a list of 205, we think that are — 205 communists in the State Department. Didn’t have a list. Harry Reid doesn’t have any evidence either. This is McCarthyism from the desert.
On the same program ABC reporter Jonathan Karl called Reid’s comments “one of the most outrageous charges that I’ve ever seen actually made on the Senate floor.” Good thing there weren’t any senators making outlandishly false charges that led the country into war. I can’t imagine how mad that would make Jonathan Karl.
But the Washington Post editorial page took it the furthest (8/8/12):
If the senator has any proof, he owes it to Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to put it on the record, now. Otherwise, Mr. Reid ought to pause and reflect on the record of another senator who once claimed to have a list of Communists and spies at the State Department — and could not substantiate it. Mr. Reid’s smear tactics are not unlike those of Joseph McCarthy and deserve equal condemnation.
Read that last line again: Reid deserves equal condemnation.
This would probably surprise anyone with a notion about what McCarthyism actually was. Joe McCarthy did not invent an anti-Communist panic–it was well-established by the time he got into the act. But he used his position of immense government power to accuse people–some of whom were working for the government–of being fundamentally disloyal to their country and secretly in sympathy with The Enemy. This hysteria took a tremendous toll on the lives of real people who had done nothing wrong.
Harry Reid, whatever you think of the wisdom of his actions, is saying that Mitt Romney might have figured out–like a few other wealthy people–how not to pay federal income taxes. Can he substantiate that charge? It would seem that he can’t, and he should be criticized for that.
Many in the corporate media think the problem with McCarthy was that he didn’t really have a list. And by that standard, politicians who make allegations against their opponents are just like Joe McCarthy. This serves to whitewash an ugly chapter in American political history.
Given the hypocrisy of corpress castigation for casting unsubstantiated aspersions
I think this could be considered a case of a dark gray kettle
Being condemned by a pitch black pot
I enjoy coming to FAIR, but I couldn’t bring myself to cheer this piece. It plays out in such a way that it climaxes with a very emotional but not very profound comment. The effect of this emotional reasoning on the piece is profound. Hart must pretend the function of the media is just to lie about the past about what is “ugly,” without recognizing the ideological bias and its consequences. Imagine a piece pursuing a different line, based on the content he is criticizing.
First, credit is due to Schieffer, who at least tried to empathize with Reid’s source, especially since the piece stresses “whitewashing” as the sin. This was not available from your quote.
And speaking of sin, looking at the transcript that is available, why is ABC’s assigning Reid the mock role of Moses the liberating prophet for the masses not taking it the furthest? The Post’s comment (who you alleged did so) limited themselves to a disagreement over “tactics” — not the effects, while agreeing with Reid in principle. The Post here is thereby functioning not only as a blind to the past, but as an ideological gatekeeper. I must assume in your zeal to prejudice the reader with “what McCarthyism actually was” you were forced to push this for the most part to witty barbs.
Something tells me Romney not only avoided paying taxes, but he did it by using offshore accounts. And while the nation was struggling with the finance system collapse, Romney made record profits from outsourcing American jobs, and was the beneficiary of bailouts.
Whatever he did, he is not proud of it–or he doesn’t want to appear to be–or he would be waving his tax returns like an American flag, even if it was made in China, as so many of them are these days.
Romney made his money during the Reagan Era Debt laws, which allowed them to buy a company with a hostile bid, and assume some massive amount of debt and then use that to pay down all the rest of your profits.
He doesn’t want anyone to know, because like all folks at that level of income, they do not pay the same thing we do; that has always been the case. The old days were much harder and higher for the monied folks, and when they made the tide rise, it did rise the majority of all others.
It was Pacifica and F.A.I.R that have pointed out time and again, the level of taxes were much higher back in the early part of the 20th century, yet those people managed to survive and thrive; yet these people like Romney claim they are ‘our new gods’ yet they can not survive with out us sacrificing all.
I don’t need another leader who claim he can’t live on 125 milllion a year but I am supposed to live on 20,000 a year. They are no longer leaders, they are just parasites on the system.
The whole Reid thing is silly. What Reid should have done is say that “For all we know Romney paid no taxes over the last ten years. Certainly, other investors of his class have not. And I’ve heard rumors that have suggested he’s done the same. That doesn’t say he did or didn’t. It says we do not know. It’s up to him to put speculations to rest.”
Reid making this political mistake is a problem but it’s not huge. Everybody dumping on him for making it is a problem. So he’s made an accusation– it’s far less than the lies Romney’s dumping on welfare, “You didn’t build that.” and the lawsuit in Ohio. Those are flat out, bald faced, no doubt, easily determined LIES. But nobody’s going after him for LYING. They’re saying he “misspoke” or this is just “rhetoric” or that’s an advertisement. They don’t want to use the word LIAR for a presidential candidate.
No, they’d rather dump that label inappropriately on Reid. All he did was report what he heard from somebody. That’s not lying. That’s not McCarthyism. Politically inexpedient, maybe. But it’s Romney that’s the LIAR.
Since 2007 Harry Reid has been an ineffectual Senate Majority Leader. He should have been replaced long ago, but his unsubstantiated allegation that Mitt Romney paid no taxes does indeed have a McCarthy ring to it and it is fair and reasonable to make the comparison, despite the fact that Reid s a far cry from the vicious, drunken nihilist who once served the people of Wisconsin by destroying other peoples’ lives.
By the way, I have here in my hand the names of a dozen media commentators who shill for the plutocracy and wouldn’t say shit if they had a mouthful.
It is sensational and historically inaccurate to compare Reid’s political maneuver with McCarthy.
McCarthy made accusations of communism and demanded folks prove otherwise, however there is not an ‘Internal Communism Service’ that AUDITS an individual’s yearly ideology. If there had been an ‘ICS’, it would have been much easier to prove one’s fealty to country to preserve career and standing in the community.
We do have an IRS that is nonpartisan and only counts the numbers. It seems to me that the difference here is like the difference between the price of coffee and the likeability of the art on the wall of the coffee shop. One is tangible and one is subjective.
Reid is not accusing Romney of disloyalty to country, but with these charges of McCarthyism already hanging about, perhaps he should.
Folks that don’t want to see Romney’s taxes must think it’s ok to avoid paying them whatever method is available. By hooks or by CROOKS.
Harry reid just repeated what was told to him by someone with knowledge of Romneys tax situation..That is not Mccarthyism only crying by the Republicians..There is no way that the people making the accusation of his lying know if Mitt paid any taxes or not, unless he showed them his taxes so the real lyers are the ones that are crying now. Mitt can clear this up by showing his Taxes but it seems that there is something he don’t want to share..Don’t forget he has done it before. When beginning to rum for Mass Gov he said that he was a resident of Mass while claiming in Utah that he was a permenent resident there and getting a Tax deduction on his property. When confronted about filing a nonresident tax return in Mass for that time He said Trust me and ammended his return to show residentcy. He now says Trust Me again I have paid all of my Taxes but will not back up this claim
rawmone, show us your papers!
rawmone show us your papers!
I am so glad that Harry Reid has taken this stand. I believe him. It’s time that Democrats take the right wing to task. Bravo Harry Reid!
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/130177
-Kurt Vonnegut on Psychopaths and the Pathocracy (Interview)
What has allowed so many Psychopathic Personalities to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! F*** habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!
Were he Gene, INSTEAD!
To suggest that Reid’s remarks, claim, whatever you wish to call it, is comparable to McCarthy’s attacks on a number of people, is deplorable, and makes it clear that the press, pundits, and the like cannot be trusted to keep historic events in context, or to exercise any reasonable judgement. It’s hard to believe they have an audience for their attempts to create controversy where it doesn’t really exist. I guess it sells, but it sure does a disservice to the public. As if there wasn’t enough real controversy in the issues, we are trying to understand. The tax system is clearly distorted enough to give Romney a legal right to not pay any or very little tax, but that doesn’t make it fair or even moral!
Reid is using the wrong tact: he should announce vociferously that Romney does not reveal his income tax statements for reasons of his Constitutional right under the 5th Amendment NOT TO INCRIMINATE HIMSELF!
I agree with William K. Holsman (above). And if Senator Reid has proof, which I presume he does, and does not give his source, how is that different from the Washington Post protecting their sources? Just askin’.
Reid’s comment may not be McCarthyesque—I’ve “heard that Mitt Romney paid no taxes.” But it sure doesn’t pass the smell test of truth. As the saying goes, put your money where your mouth is. Tell us where you heard it.
The nonsense about McCarthy is a red herring that all the conservatives have leapt upon. So many mentioned in the article, but not all. How the writer missed the interview with that August Historian who wrote a PhD thesis on the schools of the Congo, I don’t know. Newty G. appeared on one of the a.m. talk shows (Meet the Press? – Bob Schieffer) and made a “scholarly” defense of this bizarre acquisation. Steven Colbert aired this sophistry in a very funny bit which was biting. The bottom line is, as many above say, that Romney should reveal all of his tax filings from the time he left office as gov. of Mass. That would satisfy everyone. However, he really, really, really doesn’t want to do it and we all need to ask why? What is he trying to hide? I posit something big.
The problem with Stalin was his rudeness. Hitler couldn’t keep still while giving a speech. Can the press do anything more to trivialize politics? If this were a serious discussion, everyone would ask Reid for evidence and the immediately point out Romney’s long record of lying about his business and finances and that Reid could be shot down if Romney were merely as transparent as President Obama with his tax returns.
The Cons can sure dish it out in massive, unrelenting doses, but can’t take it at all. That douche Allen West said that there were between 78 and 81 communists in Congress and the Senate and did not, nor will he ever, have any evidence for that absurd and truly McCarthyesqe claim.
As long as the media is using McCarthy, then they should not forget Edward R. Murrow, since he was a big part of that story too. If he were alive, then we would have a real journalist who could and would ferret out the truth. This certainly sounds like a great story…so media, start ferreting. All you are doing now is parroting each other.
Lewis is ignore worthy.
While we argue about Romney and whether or not he paid taxes or whether Reid is a McCarthyist, all the real problems people in this country are facing are not brought to task or even spoken about in major media or by the politicians. With Obama and Romney all I hear about is the so called middle class, not a peep about this nation’s vast and growing poor, many of whom themselves were not too long ago middle class. Most working class people in this country are either a pay check or an illness away from being homeless and the middle class is disappearing in this country. Today in America it is coming closer and closer everyday to being simply rich or poor. the middle class is dying on the vine and has been since the late seventies- early eighties. While free speech is bought today by the highest bidder, homeless people aren’t even allowed to sit on the sidewalk! The average person knows this all too well, though apparently the politicians, Bob Shieffer and the rest of his ilk do not.
I have no doubt Romney skirted taxes (as do all the rich)! The saddest part is we have a two party system that has been coerced by these same rich, the very wealthiest among us to see to it only their needs and wishes are fulfilled. Meanwhile the average citizen is left with a “choice” between their two chosen candidates who beyond lip service will both work against most of us despite of which one comes out the winner in this latest dog and pony show.
How dastardly of Harry Reid! Has he no shame. What will he do next? Assert that Romney was not born in America and demand a birth certificate?
Reid’s claim is true, and McCarthy’s claim was false. That’s the difference.
is it because i no longer live in usa that i could care less what reid ,obama, mitt, or any of those lying politicians have to say? i have little hope for change in the states unless people start rising up angry!
Wow for FAIR to blow up Reid’s comment that he “heard that Romney paid no taxes for 10 years” into McCarthy’s red hunt scandal seems to be at the least hyperbole on an amplified scale and at the most provocative misleading. In fact. “I heard” that it was fellow Mormon John Huntsman who told Reid this. I heard this, I don’t know it, I heard it said. I heard it said. Does that make me another Joe McCarthy. Read the words “I heard.” aiiii!
ajamu chaminuka: You nailed it. Nothing posted here is of any conceivable significance. The American democracy has been destroyed, and its current cast of characters is irrelevant.
Anklejive.com is spot on. All these news outlets that are so heavily criticizing the Senate Majority Leader regularly use unnamed sources, usually to protect the powerful. How is this any different, except that the Bain source is probably more vulnerable than the average source at the White House or for the House Republicans? Shameless hypocrisy by CBS, ABC and the Washington Post.
Bravo to Harry Reid! What Romney is hiding must be really terrible for McCain to pick Sarah Palin as VP instead! Show us the taxes Mitt!! They must incriminate him!
What is Lewis, above, talking about? Anyone? Anyway, Reid’s a bad Majority leader who’s not running for re-election and apparently at this point the milquetoast is finally (finally!) tired of the asshole lying ‘Cons kicking sand in his face. He’s not a journalist, so there’s no big deal here. And I heard the same thing about Huntsman, and it makes sense. Romney’s in trouble, and Reid is just stickin’ the knife in a little deeper . . . a Mormon food fight, to be sure.
Turn off the TV watch their actions not their words. Romney says he won’t show. So, either he’s pulling the GW Bush sucker play ala Dan Rather or he has something he doesn’t want us to see. Which is the more likely? Since lip service is paid to “fair play” and we’re all middle class, what is it likely to be? Could it be it will show unfiarness, and we are not all treated equally? Is it likely that Romnely has anticipated what damage he would incur if he didn’t release his taxes before he decided not to? Since there can be no doubt that he and his advisers took that into account and decided, nonetheless to stonewall, then the speculation surrounding that decision is deserved.
To make Reid the issue is partisan, and taking sides. The so=called reporting class newsmedia should not take sides, but would, in an ideal world, push for disclosure. Just as they should, everyone of their weak asses, make J. Assange Person of the Year, for opening up our St. Dept and other such types, the military and all the lying SOB’s that conduct illegal wars around the world. The fact is, that Romney, Ryan, and the bulk of politicians work for the money and becuz’ Romney has vowed to spend more on wars than Obama he must be protected. .
The lesson here is that Reid should have requested anonymity. It would have been granted (by someone, if not HuffPo), and the rest of the media wouldn’t be able to complain because they all do it.
Well simply put- it was a stupid charge.Even if Romney paid nothing his entire life…. due to governmentally dictated tax write offs that benefit the government,he still would be doing everything legally.Of course he did not do that.He has a blemish free tax record.Pays about the same percentage Obama does.More than can be said for a lot of Obama cabinet officials.Not hint of illegality.So you all want all his tax records,and maybe his dads as well.Well Im sorry that is a huge invasion of his privacy.Some presidents have given more AFTER being elected.But this idea that anyone needs to show their entire financial life is crap.The left want to prove he is rich.Ummm he is.Are we done here?Back to Reed.He is like Bidon and other old house and senate members ready to be out to pasture.He should just know when to call it a day.
“Pays about the same percentage Obama does”
Rmoney paid 13.9 percent in 2011 and recently said he never paid less than 13 percent. (Meaning that he paid a 13% rate at least once.)
Obama paid 20% in 2011 and 26% in 2010.