Jack Cafferty asks if Harry Reid's career is over because of his statement that "Obama could succeed as a black candidate in part because of his light-skinned appearance"... and speaking without a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one. Jack Cafferty and his commenters for the most part he read on the air seemed to have it right. This was a tone deaf and antiquated choice of words that the Republicans are more than willing to make hay of. Why the party of the Southern Strategy thinks this ends well for them with this recent attack is beyond me.
What the media has failed to let everyone know for the most part is it was not the Democrats who forced Trent Lott out. As our own Jon Perr has noted, it was the Republicans.
Targeting Reid, Republicans Forget Bush Forced Lott Out:
The preposterous Republican campaign to equate Harry Reid's off-the-record "dialect" comment with neo-Confederate Trent Lott's lavish public praise of Strom Thurmond has shifted into overdrive. But even as Michael Steele, Jon Kyl and other leading lights of the Party of Hate press Reid like Lott before him to surrender his Senate leadership post, they conveniently omit President George W' Bush's essential role in forcing Lott's resignation. Just as important, the GOP is silent as to why Bush, desperate to improve the Party's image with minority voters, threw Lott under the bus.
Just days after Lott's infamous rebel yell in support of the legendary racist Dixiecrat Thurmond, the New York Times detailed the skullduggery by the Bush White House and leading Republicans to oust the Mississippi Senator. In an article titled, "Bush Orchestrates an Ouster," the Times reported.
Transcript below the fold.
Cafferty: His days in politics may be numbered.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - hugely unpopular at home in Nevada - is being skewered on the national stage for controversial comments he made about then candidate-Obama.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
In the new book "Game Change" - Reid is quoted as saying Obama could succeed as a black candidate in part because of his light-skinned appearance... and speaking without a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."
Reid has since gone on an apology tour - saying he's sorry to anyone who would listen: the president, plus several top African-American political figures... including members of congress, the head of the NAACP, civil rights leaders, etc.
President Obama accepted the apology "without question"... and top Democrats are defending Reid. No doubt they'd like the whole thing to just go away so the country can focus on issues like health care - instead of the party's own issues.
But several Republicans are calling on Reid to step down from his leadership position in the senate. They're comparing his comments to ones that cost former Republican Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott his LEADERSHIP job.
Meanwhile - Reid is facing an uphill battle just to keep his job as senator. A new poll shows only one-third of Nevada voters have a favorable opinion of him... 52-percent have a negative view of the four-term senator. And - that poll was taken before these comments surfaced.
Reid says he deeply regrets his "poor choice of words"... points to the work he's done for blacks... and insists he has no plans to step down.
Here’s my question to you: Is Sen. Harry Reid's political career over?
Brian from Las Vegas writes:
As a Nevadan, I can tell you the climate here is that Harry Reid's newly revealed poor choice of words is yet another issue in a long list of issues that will cost Harry Reid his senate seat. While Nevadans were once proud that the senator worked his way up as the majority leader, he has since ignored his home state and instead entrenched himself in partisan politics instead of solutions. That will be his ultimate demise.
Vince from Waterford, Pennsylvania writes:
Harry Reid is a jackass for many reasons, this is not one of them. In this case he simply spoke the politically incorrect truth, and we're all aghast. Barack Obama would not have received as much of the "white vote" if he was "darker", had "blacker features" or spoke with a "negro accent". Unfortunately, if he was "blacker," some white voters would have been turned off. That is the truth, ugly as it might be. Is this right? Hell no! But in our society, it is true. Yes, it's politically incorrect, and God forbid if a politician speaks a non-PC truth.
Don from Mobile, Alabama writes:
He seemed to be in trouble in his home state prior to the dustup over his comments about candidate Obama. The hypocritical, racist GOP conservative base smells blood in the water. They are, of course, using this incident to further their goal of regaining that seat for themselves. Why is anyone surprised? It is called politics.
Carol writes:
Why are you making such a big deal about this? What he said is true. I am a light-skinned African-American. People tell me I sound like a white girl. People have been saying this to me since the 1980s! Who cares?
Bob from Thousand Oaks, California writes:
Mr. Reid made an unfortunate mistake. He has apologized and his apology his been accepted by the President. Having been in public service for 40 years, I know how hard it is to always say the right thing, and when you blow it you hope people can put it in context and forgive you.
