Get Harry Reid a history book

When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made his rambling speech about how opponents of the health care bill (mainly Republicans) are racist, he brought up the Civil Rights Act to prove his point. Unfortunately, Mr. Reid was wrong about those evil Republicans:

Historians also faulted Mr. Reid’s curious reference to the Senate civil rights debates of the 1960s. After all, it was Southern Democrats who mounted an 83-day filibuster of the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. The final vote to cut off debate saw 29 Senators in opposition, 80% of them Democrats. Among those voting to block the civil rights bill was West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, who personally filibustered the bill for 14 hours. The next year he also opposed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mr. Byrd still sits in the Senate, and indeed preceded Mr. Reid as his party’s majority leader until he stepped down from that role in 1989.

Imagine that. 80% of the Senators who opposed the Civil Rights bill were Democrats. I think Senator Reid should “slow down” and read some history so he doesn’t make a fool out of himself again.