Yesterday, I was watching the news and they were covering Harry Reid’s comments on the floor of the Senate following one of the test votes on the Health Care Reform legislation.  Reid stated:

I said when the Senate opened today and I’ll say again because of the long hours we’ve spent here for weeks now, there’s a lot of tension in the Senate, and feelings are high. And that’s fine. Everybody has very strong concerns about everything we have done and have to do. But I would hope that everyone would go back to their gentlemanly ways and I would hope that — I was trying to figure out how to say this … I’ve said to a number of people, Rodney King: “Let’s just all try to get along.”

He hopes “that everyone would go back to their gentlemanly ways?” Isn’t this the same person who said:

Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all the Republicans can come up with is, “slow down, stop everything, let’s start over.” If you think you’ve heard these same excuses before, you’re right. When this country belatedly recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said “slow down, it’s too early, things aren’t bad enough.” When women spoke up for the right to speak up, they wanted to vote, some insisted they simply, slow down, there will be a better day to do that, today isn’t quite right. When this body was on the verge of guaranteeing equal civil rights to everyone regardless of the color of their skin, some senators resorted to the same filibuster threats that we hear today.

I’m not sure if Reid is talking to the man in the mirror, but he does need to lead by example. Otherwise, he has no reason to expect others to act more “gentlemanly.”

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