Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid went into damage control over the yesterday after news broke that during the 2008 presidential campaign he said Barack Obama had an advantage because he's "light-skinned" and has "no Negro dialect" unless he wants to employ it.
These comments, clearly racist in nature, once again give us a brutal look at the hypocrisy of the democratic party when dealing with race issues.
Let us remember way back to 2002, when then Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, made a comment during a 100th birthday celebration for the retiring Strom Thurmond:
"I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either,"
To put those statements in context for anyone not familiar with Thurmond’s background, he ran as the presidential nominee of the breakaway Dixiecrat Party in the 1948 presidential race against Democrat Harry Truman and Republican Thomas Dewey. He carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and his home state of South Carolina, of which he was governor at the time.
During the campaign, he said, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."
Thurmond's party ran under a platform that declared in part, "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race."
Eventually, Thurmond moved away from his segregationist position and went on to the longest career in Senate history (not to mention a career in which he was well known for carrying around little pieces of candy to give to all the pretty interns- or throw on the ground to watch them pick them up- but I digress).
Anyway, back to Trent Lott’s legendary comments: After poor Senator Lott uttered these remarks, the liberal bayonet virtually castrated him. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson called for Lott to resign, and former Vice President Al Gore told CNN that the comment was "racist."
The media was all over Lott’s ‘racist agenda’. Finally the poor man was forced to step down under the liberal firestorm of sound bytes and misrepresentations over both his character and his past. A wonderful look into the hypocrisy of many of the allegations can be found in this article by Tom Gormon.
Not let us contrast that incident to the now known comments by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid. Almost as quickly as news of the comments were reported by the media (mostly by Fox News, since god forbid any of the other liberally-biased news outlets rush to report anything that might hinder their own), Al Sharpton can out defending Reid.
In a statement issued yesterday, Sharpton said:
“I have learned of certain unfortunate comments made by Senator Reid regarding President Barack Obama and have spoken with Senator Reid about those comments. While there is no question that Senator Reid did not select the best word choice in this instance, these comments should not distract America from its continued focus on securing healthcare or creating jobs for its people. Nor should they detract from the unquestionable leadership role Senator Reid has played on these issues or in the area of civil rights. Senator Reid’s door has always been open on hearing from the civil rights community on these issues and I look forward to continue to work with Senator Reid wherever possible to improve the lives of Americans everywhere.”
This is the same Al Sharpton who has no problem throwing the likes of Don Imus, Trent Lott or legions of others under the bus for virtually any utterance that can somehow be interpreted as racist.
As Michael Steele, the African American Chairman of the Republican National Committee pointed out Democrats are simply full of hypocrisy on the matter,
"There is this standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own. But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism," Steele told "Fox News Sunday."
Democrats are amazingly talented at these things, voo doo magic, a pack with the dark side, who knows....it will be interesting what fate beholds Reid as the week unfolds. My guess: this gaff, like many others, will fade into the sunset and only be discussed in backrooms by Democratic strategists as they recount fondly all they ways they screwed the American people.
