Harry Sundown

I wasn't going to write about Harry Reid's racially insensitive remarks about Obama because everyone else has beaten me to it, but I thought of the title of this post and couldn't stand not to use it: Reid Apologizes for "No Negro Dialect" Comment

The top Democrat in the U.S. Senate apologized on Saturday for comments he made about Barack Obama's race during the 2008 presidential bid and are quoted in a yet-to-be-released book about the campaign.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada described in private then-Sen. Barack Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Obama is the nation's first African-American president.

"I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African-Americans for my improper comments," Reid said in a statement released after the excerpts were first reported on the Web site of The Atlantic.

"I was a proud and enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama during the campaign and have worked as hard as I can to advance President Obama's legislative agenda."

In the classic way of modern media-political discourse, Reid's apology has already been accepted by Obama and by Al Sharpton; in other words, by everyone who matters. The modern Democratic Party, and its media allies, really are disgusting sometimes.

Just as a reminder, this is what I said about Reid in my Senate Democrats Preview:

Harry Reid: a pro-life Mormon with ties to service employee unions and, ahem, “gambling interests.” Declared the Iraq War “lost” just when the Surge was taking off. Took money from Jack Abramoff. Said Justice Thomas’ judicial opinions are not intelligent (which means he has never read them). Got involved in a shady Las Vegas land deal. No clear ideology beyond favoring his own re-election. If he were a Republican, he would have been hounded from office long ago. Since he’s a Democrat, he’s the Majority Leader. Voted for TARP. 3 Wellstones

Reid never apologized for saying Clarence Thomas' judicial opinions were not intelligent, of course. He was insulting the "wrong" type of black man.

There are a lot of complaints about the double standard at work here. If Reid were a Republican, he would be looking into the face of a 1000 days of sit-ins by Rev. Al. But, the double standard goes both ways. GOP politicians are often gun-shy in their public pronouncements precisely because they fear a orchestrated media swarm every time they come close to saying something "insensitive" with the likes of Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al acting as the arbiters of what is or is not appropriate. The game is obviously rigged. Rev. Al has either studied Reid's comments with Talmudic scrupulousness, or he is simply throwing a lifeline to an idealogical ally. I think we all know what's going on. The next time a Democrat starts in on GOP racism, it'd be nice to see some push back instead of cringing. Most Democrats don't even know their own sordid racial history to fight back effectively.

And, if this incident proves anything, it's that Democrats are a coalition of groups looking for $$ or power from the government, rather than the private sector. As long as Reid is pushing health care reform and providing a 60th vote, he's as safe as Fort Knox.