The Senate Minority Leader has what we call in our house “diarrhea of the mouth.”

The Washington Times reports:

Minority Leader Harry Reid strayed from his prepared remarks on the Senate floor yesterday and promised to continue opposing one of President Bush’s judicial nominees based on “a problem” he said is in the nominee’s “confidential report from the FBI.”

…”Henry Saad would have been filibustered anyway,” Mr. Reid said on the floor yesterday, about the Michigan Appeals Court judge who is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

“All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree that there is a problem there,” Mr. Reid continued.

Republican staff members and supporters of Mr. Bush’s nominees were outraged. “Can you think of a better way to trash someone’s reputation?” Sean Rushton of the conservative Committee for Justice asked after seeing a transcript of the remarks. “Say that there is bad stuff from an FBI investigation in a file somewhere and leave that hanging. This is character assassination of the lowest order and completely improper.”

Byron York has background:

Saad, along with three other Bush picks for the Sixth Circuit, has been blocked by Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, not because of any ideological objections but because Levin and Stabenow are angry that two Democratic nominees for the Sixth Circuit were not confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate during the Clinton years. Levin is said to be especially angry because one of those Clinton nominees, Helene White, is the wife of one of Levin’s cousins. Despite that anger, in recent weeks, Reid has offered to drop the Democratic blockade of three of the Bush Sixth Circuit candidates — Richard Griffin, David McKeague, and Susan Bieke Neilson — but has pointedly left Saad out of that group.

Republicans believe that is because Saad, who is currently a judge on the Michigan State Court of Appeals, angered Stabenow in September 2003 when he criticized her actions in blocking his nomination. In an e-mail to a supporter, Saad wrote of Stabenow, “This is the game they play. Pretend to do the right thing while abusing the system and undermining the constitutional process. Perhaps some day she will pay the price for her misconduct.” But it was Saad who paid the price, because he mistakenly sent the e-mail not only to his supporter but to Stabenow’s office. Stabenow immediately protested to the White House, which answered by re-nominating Saad last January.

Before the e-mail incident, there had been no public mention of any issue with Saad’s FBI background report. Saad was nominated on November 8, 2001.

The Times reports that it’s not clear whether a senator could face sanctions for characterizing the content of FBI files. The Republicans better move to find out and Do Something About It.

Needless to say, if a Republican Senator had pulled this kind of stunt, the ACLU and privocrats would be screaming bloody hell.

Update: Captain Ed sez…

I believe Harry Reid cowardly chose a way in which to smear Henry Saad that would not allow anyone to defend him. Reid should not just be censured by the Senate as a whole, but stripped of his leadership post and his committee assignments. Let him serve the rest of his term as a member at large, gathering dust on the back benches of the Senate, where he can live with his cowardice and his despicable acts.

Lorie Byrd at Polipundit asks, “Can You Just Imagine What Must Be In Teddy’s FBI File?”

The other Dirty Harry (the good one) notes:

Had a Republican done this the liberal media would be out trying to embarrass and discredit him. They would be asking for separate confirmation from other Republicans hoping it wouldn’t come. In other words: doing their job.

Will they do that to Reid? I’ll let you know when the monkeys start flying out of my butt.

The Blogger News Network’s Doug Payton takes a look at the Left Wing Noise Machine.