Let's Apply Harry Reid's 'Dog Catcher' Standard to Barack Obama

The mainstream media has been repeating--without any criticism, context, or opposing view--Sen. Harry Reid's claim that Mitt Romney could not be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve in the Cabinet--or even to serve as "dog catcher"--because he has only released his most recent tax returns, not his entire tax history. The story currently leads major news websites, including National Public Radio's hourly news update. So it seems appropriate to do what the media will not: apply Reid's "dog catcher" standard to Barack Obama.

Let us first take the question of whether Barack Obama would have been confirmed by the Senate for any position, Cabinet or otherwise. If his lack of experience was not a sufficient obstacle, his past history of serious drug use--which is even worse than the admissions in his memoir, Dreams from My Father--would have barred his nomination. So, too, would his radical past, including his associations with Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Rashid Khalidi, Derrick Bell, and a host of extremists with whom he made common cause.

On the tax issue, it is worth reminding Sen. Reid (and the media) that several of President Obama's nominees for the Cabinet did, in fact, have very serious tax problems--and were confirmed anyway (though at least one, with a sense of humility lacking in her colleagues, withdrew). The most notorious is "TurboTax" Tim Geithner, who outrageously blamed a computer program for his failure to pay self-employment taxes while he was working for the International Monetary Fund. He was confirmed anyway, under considerable pressure from the mainstream media (and after an inexcusable capitulation by Senate Republicans), which painted Geithner as the only person who could possibly be qualified to run the U.S. Treasury in crisis.

CONTINUED:  http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/07/13/Lets-Apply-Harry-Reid-Dog-Catcher-Standard-to-Barack-Obama?utm_source=e_breitbart_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+July+13%2C+2012&utm_campaign=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+July+13%2C+2012&utm_term=More