Grapevine: Harry Reid has no regrets over Romney accusations

Senate minority leader claimed Mitt Romney did not pay taxes

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine…

No Regrets

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says he does not regret accusing then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney of not paying taxes-- a claim that has since been proven-- to be untrue.

Why? -- Because it worked-- Romney lost the election.
The claim was made just three months before Election Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader: The word's out that he hasn't paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Romney produced tax returns-- showing he had-- in fact-- paid his taxes.
Politifact ruled-- pants on fire -- that Reid produced no evidence to back up his contention on the Senate floor.
So does Reid regret the accusation?
No way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Reid: Oh I don't regret that at all.

Dana Bash, CNN: So no regrets? About Mitt Romney? About the Koch brothers? Because some people have even called it McCarthy-ite.

Reid: Well they can call it whatever they want, ummm.. Romney didn't win did he?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Reid's sudden candor follows his announcement-- that he is not running for re-election.

Vested in Interest

A doctor-turned-state lawmaker is trying to repeal a law inspired by the death-- of one of his patients.
Rose's Law requires that women be allowed a 48 hour hospital stay after giving birth-- and 96 hours if she has a C-section.
Alabama lawmakers unanimously passed the bill in 1999-- named for Rose Church, who died from childbirth complications.
She had been sent home 36 hours after giving birth.

Her doctor-- Larry Stutts-- was named in a wrongful death suit filed by her husband.

Stutts is now a Republican state senator.
He has proposed a bill to repeal that law-- saying he wants to keep legislators out of the exam room.

He has enlisted six of his fellow senators as co-sponsors on the bill-- but Alabama media report he failed to tell them of his connection to Rose.

Enraptored

And finally-- New Hampshire just might get an official state raptor after all.
Earlier this month we told you about the fourth graders who drafted a bill to make the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor.

They took a field trip to see it voted into law -- but -- much to their horror-- the bill was torn apart on the state House floor.

One lawmaker invoked an analogy about abortion-- in describing how the hawk catches its prey.
Others mocked the bill as frivolous.

Now a state senator has resurrected the measure -- attaching it to a bill for a state wildcat.

He says he wants to quote-- "right a serious wrong."