Harry Reid rips Sharron Angle over “domestic enemies”
Yesterday I reported here that Sharron Angle agreed with a talk show host's claim that we have "domestic enemies" within the "walls of the Senate and the Congress."
Now Harry Reid is personally calling on Angle to name names.
Reid, who rarely goes after Angle directly and mostly leaves the attacking to surrogates, just issued a rare statement hammering Angle over the exchange:
"Sharron Angle's rhetoric is irresponsible and over the top. Let me be very clear. While I may have some differences of opinion with my Republican colleagues in the Senate, I have never questioned their patriotism. For Sharron Angle to agree that any of them -- Republican or Democrat -- is an enemy of the state is not only an insult to every United States Senator, it's a disgrace to our country. If she is going to use such rhetoric, she has an obligation to name names and explain to the American people exactly who she thinks is a domestic enemy."
Reid's decision to personally go on the offensive against this Angle-ism suggests that the Reid camp sees another perfect opportunity to use Angle's own words to paint her as extreme, dangerous, and temperamentally unfit for the Senate. Reid's broadside seems likely to force some media attention to what Angle said here.
What's more, you can bet that the exchange, which took place with conservative talk show host Bill Manders on the day Angle launched her Senate campaign in 2009, will find its way into an ad soon enough. Here it is again:
MANDERS: We have domestic enemies. We have home-born homegrown enemies in our system. And I for one think we have some of those enemies in the walls of the Senate and the Congress.
ANGLE: Yes. I think you're right, Bill.
Because the host is the one who made the incendiary claim, this exchange might not be newsworthy if it had occurred in a vacuum. But Angle clearly and unequivocally agreed with it.
And in light of other recent Angle statements -- such as her claim that people might resort to "Second Amendment remedies" if Congress continues on its current course -- it is entirely possible that this is, in fact, what Angle believes. She should be asked about it.