The fake Republican outrage over the stupid, private remarks by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is sickening.
Reid referred to President Obama, then a fellow senator from Illinois, in private talks as “light-skinned” and speaking “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” in a new book on the campaign by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Reid has both apologized to the public and personally to the President. “I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” Reid said in a statement. “I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans, for my improper comments.”
Obama has accepted the apology, as did African-American leaders. But that’s not enough for the Republicans, and they are calling for his resignation. The are trying to tie it to the racist remarks of former Republican Senate Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. Lott spoke at the 100th birthday party for former Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-South Carolina, and the 1948 presidential candidate of the segregationist party.
Lott said that if Thurmond had won, “we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years.” In other words, if Thurmond had won and maintained segregation, the country would be better off, and he said we needed a segregationist as president.
Lott eventually apologized, but he resigned nearly two weeks later. However, it was not because of the remarks, it was because he was ineffective as a leader.
