Harry Reid Really IS the Honey Badger

The Senate Majority Leader just couldn’t give a sh*t.  In the meantime:

Author: Jonathan Zasloff

Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees. Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses. Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy.

10 thoughts on “Harry Reid Really IS the Honey Badger”

  2. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-06/romney-persona-non-grata-in-italy-for-bain-s-deal-skirting-taxes.html

    Apparently the Bain Godfather has tentacles everywhere. Interesting little Italian job he pulled back in the year 2000. As the article coyly observes:

    As Bain’s CEO from 1984 to 2001, Romney was personally involved in the deal at various points, including the initial decision to invest. He attended at least one meeting about it in Boston, according to a participant. When Bain sold the directory business in 2000, Romney, while still holding the title of CEO, was in charge of preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Romney has contended that he gave up management control of Bain in February 1999 to run the games.

    Glenn Kessler, you may feel free to commit seppuku to expiate your fact-distorting crimes.

  3. So, I’m just curious, since when did “honey badger” become a saying? And is it as dirty as it sounds? Or is it just about a rare type of badger?

      1. It’s perhaps worth pointing out that the Know Your Meme page in question is admirably complete about the recent “Honey Badger Don’t Care” meme, but doesn’t really acknowledge the much older tradition of honey badger jokes, which date at least to the turn of the century in my personal experience as an Internet Thing, all because of some (late Victorian?) apocryphal belief that the Honey Badger preys on much, much larger animals, which it disables by means of a vicious attack directed at the groin.

        1. So the honey badger is the inverse of the legendary medieval beaver, which, when pursued for its testicles, would bite the precious danglies off and leave them behind as it fled the field.

          I now need to eat, drink or smoke something unhealthy to cleanse my soul of the image of Harry Reid viciously attacking Mitt Romney’s groin in honey badger fashion.

  4. Thinking about this entire issue, and whether Reid is a big liar and so on, I’ve started to wonder. Is there a difference between a lie and a bluff? Is a bluff an acceptable sort of lie? After all, you can always expose a bluffer if you’re willing to take the risk that he’s not bluffing.

    I think what Reid is doing is bluffing. Romney can call if he wants to, but he’s - let’s be blunt - afraid. Furthermore, he’s afraid despite more or less knowing what Reid’s hand is. That’s a lot of fear.

    1. Exactly. This is high stakes poker, not Trivial Pursuit. PlutaCo is afraid, weak and afraid, which explains their frantic game-rigging as policy. Jose sixpack sees this (trust me - I work with these folks) and will vote accordingly. Now - waiting to see such ruthless hardball at the state/local level. Time to drive a stake through the heart of Reagan conservatism.

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