That it was HIS PARTY that clung to slavery – and to segregation.

Indeed, it is HIS PARTY that has currently put a former leader of the KKK -- the only man to vote against BOTH African-Americans to serve on the Supreme Court -- in the line of succession to the presidency.

It was HIS party that nominated and confirmed the only Kluxer to ever sit on the Supreme Court.

So how dare this despicable bastard make such an outrageous slur against the majority of Americans who oppose his favored legislation?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took his GOP-blasting rhetoric to a new level Monday, comparing Republicans who oppose health care reform to lawmakers who clung to the institution of slavery more than a century ago.

The Nevada Democrat, in a sweeping set of accusations on the Senate floor, also compared health care foes to those who opposed women's suffrage and the civil rights movement -- even though it was Sen. Strom Thurmond, then a Democrat, who unsuccessfully tried to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and it was Republicans who led the charge against slavery.

Senator, it was REPUBLICANS who supported women’s suffrage and Republicans who led the charge on every bit of true civil rights legislation in US history. It was the GOP that tried to pass a law against lynching, only to have Democrats in Congress and the White House act to stop any such law from making it on the books.

What’s more, Senator, there is good reason for men and women of good will to disagree in good faith on whether or not this legislation, not to mention the concept behind it, is necessary or proper – or even constitutional. There are good faith disagreements over the size and scope – and necessity – of ANY health care reform. To state that opposition to this legislation is akin to supporting slavery is nothing less than intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt, and degrades the institution in which you are a leader. I’ll go even further – such a claim, and those who make it, are objectively immoral and un-American.

In closing, I’d like to summon from the past the words directed at another demagogue who dared to slander his opponents --Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?

Excellent comments on the right abound.

Power Line: Maybe Reid hasn't noticed that according to poll data, most of his constituents join Republican Senators in opposing the Democrats' health care schemes. I suspect Reid did his re-election chances no favors by impugning Nevadans as pro-slavery and anti-women's rights.

Michelle Malkin: But don’t confuse Harry Reid with history while he invokes slavery to lambaste the GOP for opposing the government-run health care takeover.

Hot Air: In fairness to Dingy, if you strain hard you can make an argument that he’s not drawing a precise moral equivalence here. His point is that, like slavery, leaving the uninsured without insurance is a moral wrong that requires urgent redress, not that it’s necessarily as wrong. But let’s be real: If he didn’t want to imply that, he would have used a less incendiary historical example, like social security, wouldn’t he?

Doug Powers: Harry Reid is a leader in a party that wants to control every aspect of our lives and rigidly enforce our compliance, and he’s comparing the side that wants to keep these chains off to supporters of slavery? This is kind of like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling you homophobic.

Gay Patriot: Recall when White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said those comparing Democrats to Nazis were standing “on thin ice”. Wonder if he’ll offer a similar reprimand to Ol’ Harry?

Grand Old Partisan: [I]t was the Republican Party that freed the slaves and that it was the Democrats who wanted to keep African-Americans in chains. Democrats denounced President Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) for his Emancipation Proclamation, and congressional Democrats voted unanimously against the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery. In fact, so long as the GOP appreciated its heritage, the Democrats was known as the ‘Slaveocrat Party.’

Legal Insurrection: Sometimes the foolishness speaks for itself, so I'll say nothing more, for the moment. Let it sink in. This is the Majority Leader of the Senate.

Let me say for the record that Michael Steele has gotten it EXACTLY RIGHT in his public comments:

“Harry Reid wandered far out of bounds with his absurd and offensive comments,” Steele said in a statement. “This is inexcusable, deeply insulting and an arrogant abuse of the Democrat Party's unchecked power in Congress. This is an elected official saying anything, doing anything, running roughshod over any citizen who opposes his left-wing effort to jam big-government run health care down our throats.”

* * *

“Having made this disgraceful statement on the floor of the United States Senate, Mr. Reid should immediately apologize on the Senate floor to his colleagues, to his constituents and to the American people. If he is going to stand by these statements, the Democrats must immediately reconsider his fitness to lead them,” Steele said. “To suggest that passing this horrible bill is anything akin to ridding our country of slavery is terribly offensive and calls into question Mr. Reid’s suitability to lead.”

Moreover, the Senate needs to IMMEDIATELY set aside any and all consideration of health care until such time as it has debated and passed a resolution of censure against Reid for his unAmerican hatemongering statement about his fellow citizens made on the Senate floor.

UPDATE: More great reactions!

Dan Riehl: Okay, so you don't support public health care. What does that equate to in Harry Reid's battered little mind? Well, obviously, you'd be all for slavery were this 1957 all over, again. Naturally, what he fails to mention is, that would also make you a Democrat.

What a disgusting irresponsible comment. And people wonder why there are racial divisions remaining in this country. Reid and the Democrats can't resist playing the race card every time.

The Other McCain: Maybe Harry Reid is angry because Bob Byrd has gone wobbly on health care?

But the best of all, needing to be specially highlighted, is Richard McEnroe:

Democrats upheld slavery in the US... and killed 600,00 Americans in the attempt.
Democrats created the Klan.
Democrats created Jim Crow.
Democrats took the vote away from the freed blacks.
Democrats turned the dogs loose on the Selma marchers.
Democrats stood in the schoolhouse door.
Democrats murdered the Freedom Riders.
Democrats filibustered the Voting Rights Act.
Democrats beat Kenneth Gladney in the street.

And be sure to read Jonah Goldberg's excellent take on Reid's comments.