The Clueless Harry Reid
Making the rounds today is revelations from a new book called “Game Change” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. One of the revelations is about Harry Reid:
On page 37, a remark, said “privately” by Sen. Harry Reid, about Barack Obama’s racial appeal. Though Reid would later say that he was neutral in the presidential race, the truth, the authors write, was that his ”
encouragement of Obama was unequivocal. He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately. Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama’s race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.
So what do you think? Racism or just clueless insensitivity? I’m not sure how much I trust Mark “Drudge rules our world” Halperin but it must be true because Harry Reid apologized to Obama.
The White House has just put out this statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2010
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
“Harry Reid called me today and apologized for an unfortunate comment reported today. I accepted Harry’s apology without question because I’ve known him for years, I’ve seen the passionate leadership he’s shown on issues of social justice and I know what’s in his heart. As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.”
Do you think this will calm things down or add more fuel to the fire?
Perhaps we can now focus on a failed terrorism policy, failed national security policy, huge unemployment, huge deficits, failed health care reform?
Everything Obama has touched has gotten worse.
America wants a competent President, they do not care about skin color.
Mike Protack
what a moron. I cant wait for Reid to lose his seat so we can have a REAL majority leader….
and mike, stop towing the party line. America was attacked worse under bush. DC Sniper, a failled terrorist attack (shoe bomber…. who was tried and convicted in our courts) and the anthrax in the mail. OH and 9/11 NO american civilians have died in almost a year of the obama presidency. Bush was not able to make that same claim. but of course you wont respond to that. It is insane how now the big right wing talking point is an even bigger lie than usual.
Will this comment help him or hurt him in Nevada?
I don’t care about Harry Reid. I am to the point where I hope he does lose so Schumer can be Majority Leader.
Wouldn’t Durbin be first in line?
So what? Anybody remember this from Joe Biden: Obama is “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Yeah, but he can hold no candle to Schumer.
Obama is ready to move on … proving once again that he’s a better person and a smarter guy than any of his detractors.
If we all had to hold or breath until no one said anything stupid we should clean out our lockers first. Won’t be anyone left when we’re finished.
Obama forgives Reid; In 2002, he demanded Lott’s ouster
Washington Examiner ^ | 1-9-2010 | By: David Freddoso
Today, President Obama announced that he has forgiven Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for saying that Obama was an acceptable presidential candidate due to his light skin and lack of “Negro dialect.”
The racially charged remark hearkens back to the Christmas break of 2002, when Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., was hounded out of his majority leader position after he remarked favorably on former Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 1948 run for president on a segregationist third-party line.
So one obvious question: what did Obama have to say about that incident after Lott apologized?
The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not waste a moment this weekend sending members of the press a clip of what then-State Senator Obama said at that time. It comes from the Chicago Defender, a left-leaning newspaper that has long chronicled that town’s racial politics. Obama’s statement on Lott, as recorded by The Defender:
“It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator (Thurmond) for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we still have to do,” said Obama. He said: “The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.”
Lizard, it is different because Lott was showing support for a disgusting racist and an enormous hypocrite. Harry Reid is a moron and an ineffective bad leader, but he isnt a racist.
He was calling Obama’s “blackness” a good thing. It is tactless, but not racist…. not the way Strom Thurmond, may he burn in hell, was racsit. NOt the way 90% of conservatives are racist. it was not a good post. i hope you were joking JD.
A. price, JD was spam — I believe and moved it off.
Still don’t know why I don’t consider lizard’s post spam, but I’m getting there.
i think we need commenters like lizard so we can be reminded exactly what we as progressives need to fight against.
It is spam, and like all spam it is very easy to simply ignore.
Jason has scolded me in the past such that if your post does not lead with something like “George Bush is a complete asshole”, then whatever you post, is spam. A very inclusive sentiment.
I scold thee!
“Racism or just clueless insensitivity?”
What would your thoughts be if a republican said that about Obama?
still clueless. remember, repuke racism is born not just from ignorance, like Reid… but also hate and a master race complex.
Yeah, there is a big difference in the nature of the comments made by Lott and Reid.
Lott paid a courtly compliment to an elderly colleague — the equivalent of telling Great Aunt Mildred that she is still as beautiful as she was when she won the county fair queen title back in 1934.
Reid made a genuinely racist comment.
By the standards he and Obama both set in 2002, Reid must go — and those on the Left who say otherwise are hypocrites, racists, or both.
Given Reid is a Mormon, why are you guys not holding him to the same standard that the Left imposed on Romney? Why not demand he condemn the LDS Church’s history of racial exclusion? Better yet, why not ask him why he became a Mormon as an adult while that racial policy was in effect — Romney, at least, has the excuse that he was raised in that faith from birth while Reid didn’t.
And since all Lott did in 2002 was pay a courtly compliment to an elderly colleague at his 100th birthday party, it is really more the equivalent of telling Great Aunt Mildred that she still is as beautiful as when she was county fair queen in 1934. Reid, on the other hand, made a directly racial comment using clearly inappropriate racist language. As such, doesn’t excusing him make those on the Left who do so either hypocrites, racists, or both?
Of course, I don’t suppose that folks who gladly supported Joe Biden for years would see a problem with Reid’s comments. After all, such folks have become experts at excusing bigoted comments from liberal Democrats. And since he and Robert Byrd (D-KKK) are two of the first three Democrats in line for succession if anything happens to Obama, I don’t see where the Democrats have any place passing judgments on what is and is not racist.
Heck, given that the spouse of the fourth in line for the office thinks Obama should be serving him coffee instead of serving as President, it seems that the Democrats have gone back to the finest traditions of the party.
Todays McCarthyism: will we stand up and fight it, or stand down! A lie unchallenged becomes the truth, Faux News, and right wing talking heads prove that. Paranoia is a state of mind = the teabag movement.
Reid was always a weak politican. He truly cant think and chew gum at the same time. I will be glad to see him go, who cares! The guy that will replace Dodd on the Banking committee is a real neo con. This guy stands 100% behind credit card corporations. Of course, banking/credit card/foreclosures et al will still be big in the news. Expect no change or reform of banking/credit under the “coming toad”.
“Lott paid a courtly compliment to an elderly colleague”
Lott paid a compliment to an ugly disgusting hypocritical racist. Strom Thrumond is one of the worst human beings to occupy a congressional seat in the 20th century and i really hope he is burning in hell for his career of hate and racism.
Dick Vader helping in the fight against same sex marriage is not as horrible as Thurmond because he A) didnt build his career on it and B) doesn’t deny the existence of his own child who he is fighting against. I am annoyed at Reid. It was dumb of him to say, and i hope it is one of the many reasons he loses his senate seat. But Lott’s comment was worse.
All this defense of Lott’s comments is born out of ignorance of who Strom Thurmond actually was and what he stood for….. or an endorsement of it. Would anyone pay a compliment to David Duke on HIS birthday? or spit on him?
“(shoe bomber…. who was tried and convicted in our courts)”
not exactly, He was pre-Gitmo, He plead guilty (no trial) and was given Life without Parole in a Federal Supermax. In June ’09 the Obama Justice Dept. moved him from isolation into the general population.
What is far more disturbing than Reid’s comment itself, is that elected officials, paid with taxpayer dollars, would spend valuable time criticizing Reid, or any other politician who just happened to say something offensive, inappropriate, or stupid, instead of tending to the important business of the nation. And this applies to members of ALL political parties.
And why do they do it? To advance the long-term positive and material interests of the nation? No. Pure and simple grandstanding for their political purposes. They ALL should arguably be voted out at the next available opportunity. As for we citizens, we should never underestimate the power of laughter, and ignoring people.
Lizard. What do you mean “not exactly”? A price was right, Richard Reid was charged in Federal Court and plead guilty to all charges.
And, BTW, I’m no expert on Super Max prisons, but I thought there was no “general population” per se. For instance, the facility Reid is in, has 460 beds. Some of Reid’s fellow prisoners include Terry Nichols, Robert Hansen among others.
Two years ago people were shrieking about Joe Biden.
I’m not siding with Liz Cheney on this one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/10/george-will-takes-on-liz_n_417733.html
George Will and Robert Reich are a bit closer to reality here.
Lizard, what do you think would happen to a mulim terrorist in gen pop…. is he more likely to A) recruit lots of other terrorists who then break out of jail and overthrow the government? or B) shived on day one by a white supremacist gang? Really liz, do you have such little faith in our prisons, and courts, and civilian population, and police force, and prison gangs that you are so afraid of upholding our principles? coward.
Great Aunt Mildred … would that be Joe The Plumber’s aunt? What’s with this “courtly…great aunt” biznez?
While there’s no need to side with Liz Cheney, it would be more honest to acknowledge that Joe Biden’s “clean and articulate” comments — the specific language, not the thoughts expressed — were pretty awful. That’s what happens when you spend 30 years ignoring the minority community in favor of currying favor with with cops.
What Harry Reid said was the truth. The American people would not vote for a real black African-American who spoke with a “Negro” dialect. He was speaking in political terms and it was 100@ accurate. He wasn’t being a racist – in fact, he was calling attention to the racism of American voters.
Very good point. june for sticking her neck out and stating an ugly truth. Im gonna go ahead and defend/agree with you before like PC police come down on ya.
Sadly, speaking difficult truths is no place for the senate majority leader. Especially not with vultures like Fixed News looking to discredit any Democraticly led government for any reason all the time. Would anyone vote for Jesse? or Al Sharpton?
It’s not just an obvious truth, it’s pretty much the history of African-American candidates in post-Jim Crow America. It’s no accident that, in nearly any large American city you care to look at, the first black mayor was a “non-threatening” figure — generally older, usually with an intellectual-centered job, etc. Hence, Wilmington wouldn’t elect Jim Baker until Jim Sills had held the job; Philly wouldn’t elect John Street until Wilson Goode hadheld the job. Obama has made the White House safe for someone “blacker” than he is.
When will white guys learn – there is no correct way to use the word “Negro” in a sentence. (Yes I realize I contradict myself).
White candidates from the South have the same chameleon accents. Hillary was explicitly accused of sounding Southern in the South and Northern in the North, with good evidence.
Except Lindsey Graham. He sounds like an annoying cracker everywhere he goes.
The word Negro is on the upcoming census so that is not the problem. The problem is race-baiting repubs here.
Lott’s remarks on race were way more problematic. Dave Weigel explains:
Lott was not able explain what he meant by “all these problems.”
I think the problem he was talking about was the fact that African-Americans got the vote when Jim Crow laws were overturned, and that they wouldn’t vote for white segregationists.
Lott was waxing rhapsodic on the era of American apartheid. Even he got that you don’t do that.
Lott was waxing rhapsodic on the era of American apartheid. Even he got that you don’t do that.
…with cameras around
Right!
Saw on twitter that Michael Steele is claiming there is no such thing as black dialect on his blog called “What Up”. Awesome!
True dat.
Harry Reid simply stated what many white people (racist) thought and felt about Obama. If Obama had been truly dark or a man raised up through the black civil rights movement, he wouldnt have had a shot in hell. Obama was elected because he was a Harvard graduate, appeared extremely intelligent and focused and said “all the things he knew the majority of people wanted”. Not that he has delivered on those promises.
YEAH its been a FULL YEAR!!!!! why hasnt he undone everything bush did in 8 years in that ONE YEAR!!!! we should impeach him!… oh he DID make the workplace more equal for women, and DID pass the recovery act, which even by conservative estimates is starting to work, and DID stop a second depression and IS going to be the first president to pass any kind of health care reform in over 50 years making it illegal for the insurance Ponsis to let sick people die. He has also started to gain us some respect back in the rest of the world. But you’re right… he is a bigger flop than Jay Leno at 10pm.
Josh Marshall on TPM has distilled the Lott v. Reid comparison. He said Reid was talking about racism, and Lott was advocating racism. There is a big difference.
And I will not accept Mike Protack or any Sara Palin / Teabaggin lovin Republican or conservative lecturing me or any Democrat about racism, not when the most horrific racial slurs are used by their base to describe the President. You Republicans and conservative needs to mind your own house first, and then you can tell me something. You need to call out your own racist base first, before you can lecture anyone.
It wasn’t racism, it was awkwardly worded political analysis made in private, as opposed to the Lott (and Biden) statements made before the cameras. If you can’t tell the difference, you probably shouldn’t be commenting on a political blog.
… in nearly any large American city you care to look at, the first black mayor was a “non-threatening” figure — generally older, usually with an intellectual-centered job, etc. Hence, Wilmington wouldn’t elect Jim Baker until Jim Sills had held the job; …
Geezer – Your point is generally well-taken [think also Carl Stokes, Walter Washington, Kurt Schmoke] but Wilmington is not a good example. Both Jim Sills and Jim Baker are intellectuals [a Ph.D. and an author, respectively], somewhat introspective and idea-driven, rather than movement-oriented. Either might have been Wilmington’s first black mayor, but Sills was the one who took on Frawley.
When Baker challenged Sills in 2000, he did best in white districts. Baker won DiPinto’s and Keeley’s districts [winning one white ED by an ungodly 273-11]; Sills’ strength was in Al Plant’s district.
As you know, JM, Baker is a good bit younger than Sills, and his serious demeanor was mistaken for anger by some during his earlier days. And, while I admire Baker’s love of jazz, his book falls far short of Sills’ academic standards.
Your district voting assessment is just what I’d expect — after a couple of terms with Sills in charge, white voters no longer viewed Baker as such a risk anymore. I don’t think he could have beaten Frawley when Sills did.
I understand your point, but take it from a City guy, Baker had the potential to take out Frawley by a wider margin than did Sills in 1992. The only thing standing in the way: much of the muscle he used in the race against Sills was working for Frawley in ’92.
That’s a pretty big thing standing in the way.
Which is really my point. Sills didn’t become Wilmington’s first black mayor because he was more acceptable than Baker to Caucasian districts. Both anecdote and data suggest otherwise. More mundane tactical issues were involved.