Well, the auction for Harry Reid’s smear letter ended at noon today with a price of $2,100,100. When I wrote about this auction earlier, I thought maybe the price might top $1.5 million, but gah!
I was listening to Rush on my way home for lunch when the auction ended, and Rush was pretty astounded as well, as he should be since he pledged to match whatever the end price was. But what astounded him (and me) even more was that Harry Reid got up on the Senate floor an hour before the auction ended and tried to take at least partial credit for the idea of auctioning off the letter for charity. Here’s a transcript of what he said:
Madam President, earlier this month I came to the floor to discuss some comments made by Rush Limbaugh. Following my remarks, more than 40 of my Senate colleagues and I cosigned a letter to the chairman of Clear Channel, Mark May, telling him we wanted him to confer with Limbaugh regarding the statements he made.
I’ve since spoken to Mark May about this. Mark May in fact called me regarding this letter. This week, Rush Limbaugh put the original copy of that letter up for auction on eBay. Mr. President, we didn’t have time, or we could have gotten every Senator to sign that letter.
He put the letter up for auction on eBay, and I think very, very constructively, let the proceeds of that to go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation. That provides scholarship assistance to Marines and federal law enforcement personnel whose parents fall in the line of duty. What could be a more worthwhile cause? I think it’s really good that this money on eBay is going to be raised for this purpose.
When I spoke to Mark May, he and I thought this probably wouldn’t make much money, a letter, written by Democrat Senators, complaining about something. This morning, the bid is more than two million for this. We’ve watched it during the week. It keeps going up and up and up. There’s only a little bit of time left on it, but it certainly is going to be more than two million. Never did we think that this letter would bring money of this nature.
And for the cause, Madam President, it’s extremely good. Now everybody knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don’t agree on everything in life. Maybe that’s kind of an understatement. But without qualification, Mark May, the owner of the network that has Rush Limbaugh, their auction is going to be something that raises money for a worthwhile cause. I don’t know what we could do more important than helping to ensure that children of our fallen soldiers and police officers who have fallen in the line of duty have the opportunity for their children to have a good education.
“Is that not audacious?” said Rush, and I have to agree. Harry Reid stands up on the Senate floor this morning with no other purpose than to put himself on a soapbox to create soundbites for the media, all with the intent of taking credit for something that he had no part in. His only part in all of this was to abuse his power as the Senate Majority Leader in an attempt to bully Rush, a private citizen, into submission. And then when Rush turns the tables on him and tries to make something good out of it, Reid jumps up and tries to steal the show. It was shameful. I just listened to the audio from Reid’s September 26 rant again, and it just makes me sick to hear all that. There is no truth to what he’s saying, he knew it then, and he really knows it now. Today’s act is called damage control.
Read through his statement again. He does absolutely nothing but recount what happened, trying to weave himself into the success that Rush made of the debacle that he — Reid — created. And he closes his statements saying… Well, saying nothing at all; “their auction is going to be something that raises money for a worthwhile cause.” Well duh. That just really emphasizes to me that he had absolutely nothing to say; only trying to get himself and other 40 Senatorial dolts out of the hot water they find themselves in, and trying to make themselves look like the heros they will never be.
Now some news outlets are finally picking up the story, saying that Reid “urged bids on it.” Yeah, right. An hour before the end of the auction, when the minimum bid is over $2 million. What a hypocrite. And what dupes are the major media outlets that play into Reid’s spin on this.