Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is facing calls from fellow Republican Louisiana Senate candidate Rob Maness to apologize for saying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) “runs the Senate like a plantation.”
But Cassidy stood by the comments, arguing critics’ interpretations were creating “a false controversy.”
{mosads}”Congressman Cassidy may not realize this but the language he used included a term that is incredibly offensive to many Americans and he should immediately apologize,” Maness said in a statement.
“It’s this type of over-the-top, out-of-bounds ignorance that drives so many people away from the Republican Party. We need to be better than that. We need to be the party of thoughtful ideas and common-sense reforms — not extreme rhetoric and ignorant comments. We all make mistakes and when we do, we should have the fortitude to own up to them.”
Cassidy made the comments in an interview with E&E Daily, a Washington, D.C., trade publication. In the interview, he criticized Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), whom he hopes to replace in the Senate next year, as being a key player in supporting President Obama’s agenda in the Senate.
“[The president] wouldn’t get his agenda through if she wasn’t there supporting Harry Reid,” he said.
He also charged that Reid “runs the Senate like a plantation.”
“So, instead of the world’s greatest deliberative body, it is his personal, sort of, ‘It goes if I say it does, if not it stops.’ Sen. Landrieu’s first vote for him to be reelected means that every other wish for a pro-oil and gas jobs bill is dead. Reid will never allow a pro-oil and gas jobs bill,” Cassidy added.
The congressman later said he was referring to the “dictatorial” way Reid runs the Senate and that “any other interpretation of my remarks is a false controversy.”
“I wish there was as much offense taken by Harry Reid running the Senate dictatorially, not allowing any votes which he does not personally approve of and the result of which he does not endorse. Any other interpretation of my remarks is a false controversy designed to distract attention from policies which are demonstrably crushing jobs and taking our country in the wrong direction,” he said.
Landrieu’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Cassidy’s remarks, but national Democrats decried them, with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Justin Barasky calling it a “big problem” on Twitter and questioning whether the National Republican Senatorial Committee supports them.
The comments, however, are not unlike those made by then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2006, when she said the Republican-controlled House “has been run like a plantation.” NRSC spokesman Brad Dayspring pointed out the comparison on Twitter and asked if the DSCC would still be holding a fundraiser, scheduled for Tuesday night, with Clinton.
Landrieu, one of Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents this cycle, is expected to head to a runoff with one of her Republican challengers this fall.
Cassidy is the establishment pick to take her on, and polling has shown him to be the stronger contender in a head-to-head match-up. Maness is hoping he can take advantage of the anti-Washington sentiment hurting incumbents this cycle and gain some traction between now and November.
— This report was updated at 1:00 p.m.