Greg Sargent reports:
Right wing blogs think they've unearthed a lethal hit on Harry Reid: He apparently introduced a bill to end birthright citizenship back in 1993.
Conservatives are pointing to this as proof of Reid's hypocrisy in the wake of his claim the other day that he doesn't understand how any Latinos could ever vote Republican. Ed Morrissey argued that by his own standard, Reid "should lose his entire Hispanic vote over this."
Guess what: It happens to be true that Reid did introduce such a bill. And it was indefensible. But here's the thing: I've learned that Reid already apologized profusely for this in a speech in 2006, admitted he was wrong, and described this as the "low point" of his career. In other words, Reid himself agrees that it was indefensible.
So right-wing blogs "unearthed" something Reid publicly talked about in 2006. Apparently unearthed is now defined as 30 seconds of googling. What they're probably not writing about is this part of the story:
Reid's office sends over a transcript of a long and unusual apology Reid offered for this on the Senate floor in 2006.
"That is a low point of my legislative career, the low point of my governmental career," Reid said. He went on to tell the assembled Senators that his wife had chastized him for the move. "She, in effect, said: I can't believe that you have done it," Reid recounted. "But I had done it."
Reid's apology delivered in "a near whisper as many Senators looked on in amazement," according to one news account at the time.
How many Republican Senators can you think of who have stood on the floor of the Senate not only to talk about their monumental fuck-ups, but to apologize for them? Or Senators of any stripe, for that matter. But the mark of good public servant is one that is capable of changing their mind when they realize they're wrong, and even more important, publicly acknowledging and apologizing for the mistake. That's something the Right will never embrace. Witness George W. Bush.
