Hitting back Dep’t

Barney Frank and Harry Reid get off a pair of one-liners against the current Republican Presidential candidates.

I’ve always thought what the country really needed was a few Democrats capable of being as wittily nasty as Republicans. Looks as if we’re getting them.

Barney Frank, asked whether “the real Romney” was the pro-gay-rights Massachusetts candidate or the anti-gay-rights national Republican candidate:

Neither of the above. The real Romney is clearly an extraordinarily ambitious man with no perceivable political principle whatsoever. He is the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics.

Harry Reid on the current Republican field:

I’ve learned one thing in listening to all the debates and reading about all these people running for office, and the one fact I’ve learned, I can’t get out of my mind, is that Rudy Giuliani has been married more times than Mitt Romney’s been hunting.

Barney’s sharp wit isn’t exactly news. But butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his mouth Harry Reid? More, please.

Update Reid turns out to have borrowed the line from Carville. But it bears repeating. Remember, dear reader, when you and I are so bored with an argument or a quip that hearing it again makes us want to scream, the median voter is just becoming vaguely aware of it.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com