Reid Isn't Making History--He's Making It Up!

Yesterday Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stood on the Senate floor and compared health care opponents to the old supporters of slavery.

"Instead of joining us on the right side of history, all Republicans can come up with is this: slow down, stop everything, let's start over," Reid said.

"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, let's wait, things aren't bad enough."

Today, his office may have defended those remarks, but what they cannot defend is Sen. Reid's distortion of the facts.

It was his party--not the GOP--who stood in the way of American freedom.

Every vote against the Thirteenth Amendment to free the slaves was cast by a Democrat.

Every vote against Lincoln 's Emancipation Proclamation was cast by a Democrat.

In 1922, when Republicans tried to outlaw lynching, Senate Democrats filibustered the bill until it died and continued filibustering against it until it was approved in 1957.

When the great Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally passed, Republicans in the Senate backed it 23-6, but Democrats in the majority approved by only 44-23. Without the Republican Party, it wouldn't have become the law of the land.

Sen. Reid isn't making history--he's making it up!

If his party shows this much disregard for the past, then Americans should be terribly worried about their future. When the Majority Leader is willing to rewrite history to score cheap political points, how can we trust him with something as vital as health care? We can't.

Until then, I have a suggestion. Senators who want to be on the right side of history can start by supporting innocent human life.

And if anyone deserves to be freed, it's U.S. taxpayers who want no part of abortion's bloody business.

Tony Perkins