On Saying All That in the Same Breath

Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, has a lot to say about social security, but I am more interested in what he has to say about what Republicans have to say and how he says it:

“President Bush has a lot of new Social Security rhetoric, but the facts remain the same. His risky privatization scheme is an assault on middle-class seniors and would mean deep benefit cuts even for those who choose not to risk their money in private accounts.

I doubt that I want to argue that rhetoric is a neutral thing, a tool of sorts to be used for good or bad, well or poorly, but I am willing to claim that Harry Reid has used rhetoric himself--not only on other occassions, but on this one too.

For one, it's not as if President Bush is walking around and spouting-off made-up things; he too is using facts, just different ones. How rhetorical of you, Mr. Reid, to imply that the facts were only on your side.

And of course, what could be more rhetorical than renaming something? How scheming of you, Mr. Reid, to refer to President Bush's plan as a scheme.

Surely, this is nothing new and I have heard it before. But, I have never heard one so smoothly go from talking down about rhetoric to then employing it so quickly in the next sentence.