Practiced smear merchant Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), whose disgraceful political career will come to a blessed end upon his impending retirement, is characteristically sliming his way to the finish line.

Reid has accused FBI Director James Comey of suppressing damaging information about Donald Trump ahead of next week’s election. “It has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors and the Russian government,” Reid wrote in an acerbic letter to Comey. His evidence? Unspecified “communications” with unnamed officials.

Reid wields precisely zero credibility in leveling this allegation. Four years ago, reportedly with the blessing of the Obama campaign, Reid repeatedly stoked speculation that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had avoided paying taxes.

“The word’s out” that Romney “hasn’t paid any taxes for 10 years,” Reid claimed, citing unnamed sources in support of his utterly baseless charge. Sound familiar?

Today, Reid expresses no regrets over his high-profile 2012 slander. “He didn’t win, did he?” the Nevadan smirked of Romney during an interview with CNN in March of this year.

This latest mud special is only one element of the Senate minority leader’s unhinged attacks against Comey. Reid warned that the FBI chief may have violated federal law simply by writing a letter informing Congress of newly discovered evidence in the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal. The fact is that Clinton’s problems are of her own making. As Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy wryly noted on Monday, “[Comey] didn’t tell her to set up her own private email server. He did not tell her to mislead the public about whether or not she had sent or received classified information. He did not tell Huma Abedin, ‘hey, don’t turn over all your devices.’ And God knows he didn’t tell Anthony Weiner to sext with underage girls.”

Indeed. But in spite of those undeniable truths, many Democrats — egged on by Team Hillary — have launched a shoot-the-messenger blitz against Comey, upon whom they’d lavished praise in the months following his controversial decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton.

“No one can question the integrity, the competence” of the FBI’s boss, gushed none other than … Senator Harry Reid in July.

One turn of events later, and Reid has abruptly pivoted to trying to bully Comey with transparently empty and cynical partisan threats. Even President Obama has slapped down Reid’s incendiary intimation, as White House spokeman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday that the president “doesn’t believe Director Comey is trying to influence the outcome of an election.”

Sorry, Harry. Your departure from our politics can’t come soon enough.

Guy Benson is the Political Editor of Townhall.com