Harry Reid launches his harshest attack on the Republican Party in months. Reid: GOP 'run by a talk show host'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid launched his harshest attack on the Republican Party in months, claiming the GOP is "being run by a talk show host."

Reid, armed with a patch of Astroturf, slammed Republicans for sponsoring town hall attacks on Democrats and accused the party of waging a barricade on Democratic efforts to pass health care reform legislation.


"I just want to show you what Astroturf really is," Reid said to laughter. "They're taking their cues from talk show hosts, Internet rumor mongers, and insurance rackets."

"I just think, as I've said before, it's not often that you try to blow yourself up, but that's obviously what they're trying to do with all this vexatious stuff they're doing with these meetings, the birthers. It's a party being run by a talk show host," Reid said.

A senior Republican Senate aide shot back: "Harry Reid will be surprised to learn that not only do the people he routinely insults have opinions, they also vote. Right now the 'astroturf' is out-polling Harry Reid 60-40 in Nevada."

But Democrats seemed to be on a roll with their pushback Thursday.

"These guys don't care about you," Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said of the town hall protesters. "They care about YouTube."

"We can spot a ringer," Durbin said.

Reid acknowledged that Democrats faced questions about their health care reform push, but he said the party was gradually working through and making progress in what he described as a difficult legislative process.

"People have concerns about it. Rightfully so. They should have concerns about it. We all have concerns about it," he said. "But even if people have concerns about it, they shouldn't stand in the way of a process that is one that is deliberative and trying to arrive at a product that we can all be proud of."