Republicans cite Lott in calling for Reid to quit

WASHINGTON (AP) - A double standard? Republicans seeking Sen. Harry Reid’s resignation as majority leader over racial remarks he made about Barack Obama say yes - that Reid should be held to the same standard as former GOP Sen. Trent Lott, whose own racial gaffes cost him the Senate leadership in 2002.

Democrats say no, that Reid’s comments - while unfortunate - were nothing like Lott’s.

Reid apologized to Obama and a handful of black political leaders after a new book reported that he was favorably impressed by Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign and, in a private conversation, described the Illinois senator as a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

Obama, who tries to steer clear of the political thicket of race and politics, accepted the apology and said he wanted to close the book on the episode. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that the president “didn’t take offense” at the comment.

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Republicans cite Lott in calling for Reid to quit

Of course there’s a difference, the thing is, all of us dumb old Conservatives just don’t see things the way the *progressive* Democrats do.

Harry Reid doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. Attorney General Eric Holder said so. Surely he would know, what with being a Black man in the Obama administration and all. Right?

And hey, Reid apologized. You can’t do more than that. Right?

Why make such a big deal of it? After all, Barack Hussein Obama himself accepted that apology. It seems to me that if The Obamessiah himself is willing to accept Reid’s apology, that’s the very least the rest of the unwashed masses should do.

Obama didn’t take offense at the remark, Robert Gibbs himself said so!

I mean, surely there’s no PARTY favoritism at work here? Is there?

Republicans were eager to keep the issue open Sunday, comparing Reid’s remarks to those that cost Trent Lott the Senate leadership in 2002 and questioning why there was different reaction now.

Lott had cheered the 1948 presidential campaign of Strom Thurmond - a segregationist Democrat opposing President Harry Truman - during a 100th birthday tribute to Thurmond, by then a longtime Republican senator.

Lott, R-Miss., eventually apologized but resigned nearly two weeks later after a growing number of Republicans questioned his effectiveness, especially after he told Black Entertainment Television he supported affirmative action, no longer opposed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and would back programs aimed at minorities. He resigned from the Senate in 2007.

I don’t believe that Trent Lott got a fair shake on this. I never did. Lott bit the bullet and he took one for the GOP team. He stepped down.

Did he make some comments that were found to be offensive by some? Sure he did, and he paid the price. But Trent Lott was taken to task by his own party for making what some deemed to be inappropriate comments.

In Reid’s case, at least so far, Democrats have been content to chide the Nevada Democrat and cast his remarks as inappropriate and, as Obama said, “unfortunate.”

And that pretty much sums up the Democratic response to Sen. Harry Reid’s remark.

“There is this standard where the Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own,” Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, who is black, said Sunday. “But if it comes from anyone else, it’s racism.”

How about that? Steele is making noises that almost make him sound like a Conservative!

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement that Reid should step down, calling his comments “embarrassing and racially insensitive.”

“It’s difficult to see this situation as anything other than a clear double standard on the part of Senate Democrats and others,” Cornyn said.

Be careful Sen. Cornyn, you’re going to confuse people and have them thinking that you have all of a sudden discovered Conservatism.

Former Rep. Harold Ford, an African-American who is chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, called Reid’s remarks “an unusual set of words.”

But in an interview Monday on NBC’s “Today” show, Ford said “I don’t believe in any way Harry Reid had any racial animus. I think there’s an important distinction between he and Trent Lott.”

An unusual set of words. Yes they were, and I am still wondering if those exact same words had come from the mouth of ANY Republican, white or otherwise, would the Democratic reaction be so soft?

The Democrats are circling the wagons around Harry Reid. They will protect their own, no matter what the issue may be, right or wrong, the Dems WILL protect Harry Reid. That is the duplicitous hypocrisy that IS the core of the Democratic party.

Harry Reid has given us a glimpse into the very heart of the Democratic party and the rally power they have when one of their own screws up and a Senate seat is at stake. Let’s hope that the voters of Nevada have the courage to do the RIGHT thing and run Reid out of the Senate!

If some of the voters in America don’t open their eyes, and make a real stand for what is RIGHT, this nation won’t be worth saving come 2012.

There is one other thing that does puzzle me, Harry Reid described Obama as a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”. Reid told the truth!

Why did Harry Reid feel that he had to apologize for telling the truth?