Harry Reid's Bullying Tactics Called Out By Nevada's Largest Newspaper

The publisher of Nevada's largest newspaper, Sherman Frederick, unleashed a scathing account of an incident involving Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

On Wednesday, before he addressed a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Reid joined the chamber's board members for a meet-'n'-greet and a photo. One of the last in line was the Review-Journal's director of advertising, Bob Brown, a hard-working Nevadan who toils every day on behalf of advertisers. He has nothing to do with news coverage or the opinion pages of the Review-Journal.

Yet, as Bob shook hands with our senior U.S. senator in what should have been nothing but a gracious business setting, Reid said: "I hope you go out of business."

Later, during his public speech, Reid again referenced the Las Vegas Review-Journal and his hopes that it suffers an economic calamity.

The paper's perceived crimes? It published public opinion polls that show Reid trailing GOP challenger Danny Tarkanian by double digits.

Frederick refuses to be bullied by Reid:

Such behavior cannot go unchallenged.

You could call Reid's remark ugly and be right. It certainly was boorish. Asinine? That goes without saying.

But to fully capture the magnitude of Reid's remark (and to stop him from doing the same thing to others) it must be called what it was -- a full-on threat perpetrated by a bully who has forgotten that he was elected to office to protect Nevadans, not sound like he's shaking them down.

No citizen should expect this kind of behavior from a U.S. senator. It is certainly not becoming of a man who is the majority leader in the U.S. Senate. And it absolutely is not what anyone would expect from a man who now asks Nevadans to send him back to the Senate for a fifth term.

If he thinks he can push the state's largest newspaper around by exacting some kind of economic punishment in retaliation for not seeing eye to eye with him on matters of politics, I can only imagine how he pressures businesses and individuals who don't have the wherewithal of the Review-Journal.

It goes without saying that the unaccountable, "ethically challenged" leadership of the Democrat Party is capable of anything when it comes to getting their way. This, remember, is the party of ACORN, dead voters, and paying for votes with crack cocaine.

To his credit, Frederick is having none of it.

For the sake of all who live and work in Nevada, we can't let this bully behavior pass without calling out Sen. Reid. If he'll try it with the Review-Journal, you can bet that he's tried it with others. So today, we serve notice on Sen. Reid that this creepy tactic will not be tolerated.

We won't allow you to bully us. And if you try it with anyone else, count on going through us first.

That's a promise, not a threat.

And it's a promise to our readers, not to you, Sen. Reid.

People of Nevada, Harry "Land Deal" Reid no more represents your interests than he does the life forms on Betelgeuse. You need to kick his butt out of office in 2010 and find someone who actually cares about Nevada... and the citizens of the United States.