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To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 3:44:57 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Reid's Negro Problem -- And Ours By: Jonah Goldberg The Corner George Will said on This Week that everything Reid said is in fact true and, by implication, therefore not racist. Well, I dunno. If Reid had used the word "African-American" instead of "negro" I would say Will has a better case. Though talking about how African American candidates with light skin are better political prospects seems pretty close to the line, if you ask me. Regardless, on the merits you could easily make the case that Reid, being a bumbling addlepate, didn't actually have any racist views in his heart when he said that. But the merits have very little to do with race and how it is discussed and used. More to the point, the double-standard issue is unavoidable. If any Republican were caught speaking this way about Obama -- even in private -- liberal cries of racism would be filling the air. I can't imagine how anyone can disagree with that. I see nothing wrong with acknowledging that double standard. I'm not sure that taking it to the next level and calling Reid a racist is the way to go. It's a hateful and dispiriting tactic when liberals use it against conservatives. It would be hypocritical for conservatives to mimic it solely in the spirit of payback. As far as political tactics go, I'd rather Republicans simply acknowledged the double standard and chalked it up as yet another example of how Washington's liberal Democrats have one set of rules for themselves and another for everybody else. That's the sort of message that will win elections for Republicans in November. Shouting "the Democrats are racist" won't. corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 3:49:48 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Re: Reid's Negro Problem By: Jonathan Adler The Corner Might Senator Reid just have a problem with "negro" accomplishments? His remarks about then-candidate Obama remind me of his offensively dismissive comments about Justice Clarence Thomas from December 2004. Back then, Reid called Thomas an "embarrassment" on the court because "his opinions are poorly written." Yet when asked to support his charge, Reid fell flat, making patently false claims about Thomas's opinions (among other things). Significantly, Reid did not simply criticize Thomas for being too conservative or too willing to overturn precedent. Instead, in an effort to distinguish Thomas from Scalia, he suggested that Justice Thomas was not up to the job and that Thomas wrote at a grade-school level. For those who follow the Supreme Court, Reid's comments were ignorant and absurd, but also somewhat predictable as they played upon the stereotype of Justice Thomas as an affirmative-action baby who was not qualified to be on the court. Rep. Melvin Watt, then-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, reportedly wrote Reid to caution him against making such comments, particularly insofar as they play upon racial stereotypes and caricatures. Apparently Reid was unable to follow Representative Watt's advice. corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 3:54:46 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Re: Harry Reid's Negro Problem - And Ours By: Mark Steyn The Corner Re Senator Reid and the "light-skinned Negro," I agree with much of what's written below, and obviously any Republican Senate Majority Leader who started musing on such matters would be dark-skinned toast in nothing flat. But this comment by Matthew Yglesias (full disclosure: Mr. Yglesias has no use for me) tiptoes ever so tentatively toward the heart of it: <<< It’s good that Reid apologized, but at the same time you can’t really apologize for being the sort of person who’d be inclined to use the phrase “negro dialect” and it’s more the idea of Reid being that kind of person that’s creepy here than anything else. >>> One understands the realities of power. You can talk about how light-skinned and clean the Negro is and that's perfectly okay as long as you support the president's policies or (as Mr. Obama put it in his acceptance of Reid's apology) "social justice." But, if you go along to a town-hall meeting and say you oppose the health-care bill because you're very concerned at what you hear about waiting times for MRIs in Canada, you're obviously a knuckledragging racist who's itching to string that uppity Negro from the nearest tree. (It's been scientifically proven!) Okay, fine. But, even if you accept all that, you're still left with what Mr .Yglesias calls the "creepiness" -- the fact that the Senate majority leader and to a lesser extent the vice-president think in this way. To those of us who find identity politics repugnant, it would seem to confirm that an unhealthy obsession with "anti-racism" eventually becomes so condescending it's indistinguishable from racism -- or, at any rate, the micro-classifications of apartheid -- to the point where bigtime Dem honchos are sitting around saying, "What we need here is a clean octoroon." "Well, this high yaller from Chicago might do the trick." I mean, in what sense are Harry Reid's remarks any different from this? The Weekly World News' "Ed Anger" commenting last week on Obama's first transsexual appointment: <<< I saw some pretty lousy looking she-males back in Korea, and I gotta say: this new one at least can pass... >>> corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 3:58:15 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Harry Reid & the Double Standard By: Kathryn Jean Lopez The Corner It's not just that these things somehow don't matter when we're talking about a Democrat as opposed to a Republican, it's that Democrats close ranks. They don't let their guy be taken down. The president, the party, and the media protect. That tends not to happen on the Right. We took Lott down ourselves (even though the Left would have done it if we hadn't!). corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 4:34:58 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Inside Harry Reid's -- and the Liberal -- Mind By: NRO Staff The Corner If Harry Reid were a Republican, he'd be history. But, on the other hand, his actual remarks, while politically incorrect, weren't racist. If anything, what they suggest is that he believes race matters more to whites than it actually does. Democratic politicians believe that most whites harbor prejudice towards blacks; it's why they believe you need racial preferences. If he owes anyone an apology, it's the American people. corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 4:38:59 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

The Democratic Heart By: Kathryn Jean Lopez The Corner An e-mail on the topic Mark raises -- what they really think: <<< [Harry Reid's] remark's context is (apologies) remarkable. From media reports, it appears that the Majority Leader made these statements to a group of Dems to get them to line up behind Obama. If so, for Reid to pull out the color bar and assess the lightness or darkness of Mr. Obama's skin then to comment essentially that he sounds white enough to get elected, in an effort to sell Democrats on him, really points to the depths of the bigotry and racism and hypocrisy within the party of slavery, its leadership, or both. >>> corner.nationalreview.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 4:55:56 PM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

Reid on Lott: 'If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly.' By: David Freddoso Online Opinion Editor beltway-confidential 01/11/10 12:39 PM EST Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comments about President Obama's "light skin" and "lack of negro dialect" become more interesting in the light of his 2002 comment on the racial controversy that stripped Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., of his leadership position. Over the weekend, his hometown paper highlighted his comments from that time to the Associated Press: *<<< “You play how you practice… If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.” >>>* The implication, of course, is that Lott must have been saying lots of racist things behind closed doors for him to praise in public Strom Thurmond's segregationist presidential run of 1948. Perhaps there is a benign reading to Reid's "Negro" comments, but having harshly judged others, Reid now looks like a fool, even if you don't believe he's using the N-word behind closed doors. Moreover, it is obvious why Democrats are rallying to Reid's cause now. He is the Senate Majority Leader, and if he is weakened to the point that on-the-fence Democrats don't believe he can guarantee their sweetheart deals in the future, then the health care bill could fail on its second Senate vote. The liberal tolerance for racism in their ranks appears to be heightened in such a situation, when major ideological goals are at stake. washingtonexaminer.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 5:09:06 PM
From: Sully-	1 Recommendation Respond to of 35834

Reid No Stranger to Poor Word Choice FOXNews.com Harry Reid is on an apology tour to African American leaders and Democrats in Washington after describing candidate Barack Obama as "light-skinned" with "no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one," but it's not the Senate majority leader's first time against the ropes. Reid has a long history of making verbal gaffes that he's had to dial back or explain away. "There's dozens over the years," Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sue Lowden said of Reid's eyebrow-raising remarks of the past. Lowden cited better known remarks by Reid, such as: - His summertime comparison of a lack of health insurance coverage to slavery; - His April 2007 conclusion that the war in Iraq was lost; - His description of tea partiers as "evil-mongers"; and - His pleasure that the Capitol Visitors Center meant he wouldn't have to "smell the tourists" filling up the Capitol in the summertime. Among some of his finer moments, Reid also declared to the Reno Gazette-Journal in September that Sen. Ted Kennedy's death "is going to help" Democrats pass health care. Last summer, he told a Fox News reporter to "turn up your hearing aid" at a press conference. "He called our former president a loser in a high school classroom here in Nevada," Lowden said, referring to a civics class discussion a few months after George W. Bush's second inauguration. On Saturday, Reid made the rounds asking for forgiveness for his 2008 comment, saying, "I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words." But after a round of criticism from Republicans, including calls for his resignation as majority leader by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Reid spokesman Jim Manley said that's not going to happen. "The Republicans are saying this because they know they can't beat Harry Reid... They know that Harry Reid delivers for Nevada. ... So the only way to get him is to try to push him out. Senator Reid stands by the president and will continue his life's work to improve people's lives," Manley said. Even before the latest mouthful, Reid was feeling the toll of his verbosity. He has vowed to run for re-election in the fall, and has nearly $9 million in the bank. But his approval rating in a Mason-Dixon poll taken Jan. 5-7 -- before the latest remarks were made public -- showed him with 33 percent approval compared to 52 percent disapproval. That same poll showed that in head-to-head match-ups with three potential GOP contenders in November, Reid trails against each. "It's not about this comment it's about the next comment and the comment after that," Lowden told Fox News. "He's been (in Washington) three decades and I believe he's just lost touch with what's going on here in Nevada. ... The power has gone to his head." In his own assessment of Sen. Trent Lott's resignation as majority leader in 2002 after grimace-inducing remarks during Sen. Strom Thurmond's centennial birthday, Reid said Lott had "dug himself a hole and he didn't dig it all in one setting. He dug it over the years. And he couldn't figure out a way to get out of it." Cornyn said Reid should now take his own cue. "In 2002, Democrats expressed outrage at Senator Lott and called on him to step down as Leader. That same standard should be applied to Senator Reid and his embarrassing and racially insensitive statements; statements, I would add, that Senator Reid still has yet to clarify," he said. Reid's verbal gymnastics aren't limited to journalists and colleagues. Lowden said that Reid had threatened to "vaporize" his opponent in the fall. "When I heard he said he was going to vaporize me, I said, 'start on my hips.'" foxnews.com

To: Sully- who wrote (32526)	1/11/2010 5:12:07 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

Blagojevich Apologizes for Saying He's 'Blacker' Than Obama AP CHICAGO -- Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Monday that it was stupid for him to tell Esquire magazine that he's "blacker than Barack Obama" and that he doesn't believe it anyway. In an interview on WLS Radio in Chicago, Blagojevich explained he was speaking metaphorically to the reporter whose story appears in the February issue of the magazine. He said his comments were made out of frustration with the way blacks and others who are struggling are treated by government. "It's a stupid metaphor to say I'm blacker than Barack Obama, that I apologize for," he said. "It's not appropriate for me, a white person, to stand out somehow and claim to be a black person, that's just wrong ... I was expressing frustration that the policies of this new administration still haven't really been focusing on the great deal of inequities we have in our society." In the article, Blagojevich refers to the president as "this guy," and says Obama was elected based simply on hope. "What the (expletive)? Everything he's saying's on the teleprompter," Blagojevich told the magazine for a story that hits newsstands Jan. 19. "I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said. "I saw it all growing up." On the radio program, Blagojevich talked more about his childhood and how he saw the riots in Chicago in the late 1960s and the "white flight" from the city. He did not compare his childhood to that of Obama's or any other black person. Still, "I've always had a strong affinity for the African-American community," he stressed, adding that when he was governor he appointed several more blacks to "important" posts than any of his predecessors. The White House refused to comment. The twice-elected Democrat was impeached and removed from office last year after federal prosecutors arrested him on corruption charges that included trying to sell Obama's old U.S. Senate seat. He has pleaded not guilty. Blagojevich continues to accuse prosecutors of persecuting him for routine political deals. One of those deals, he said, was the possibility of naming Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Obama's Senate seat in exchange for cooperation on important programs from her powerful father, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. He used an infamously coarse word to refer to the attorney general. "If I can get this, how much do I love the people of Illinois to make that (expletive) senator?"' Blagojevich said. Blagojevich is appearing on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" this spring and his trial is expected to start later this year. foxnews.com