A Negro Dialect

Political Washington got a proverbial slap in the face on Saturday, when a new book came out that contained a less than desirable quote about President Obama from none other than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

In remarks from the Presidential campaign in 2008, Reid described his then Senate colleague as a "light skinned" African-American who had "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Just the two words, "Negro dialect", were a head shaker, since "Negro" is not exactly a word that gets dropped into too many conversations these days.  It sounds rather 1950's-ish.

"Harry Reid called me today and apologized for an unfortunate comment," President Obama said in a written statement on Saturday, in which he said he "accepted Harry's apology without question."

"As far as I am concerned, the book is closed."

The book certainly is not "closed" for Republicans, as some demanded that Reid step down as Majority Leader, arguing that if a GOP Senator had said this, Democrats would be outraged.

"There is this standard where Democrats feel they can say these things and apologize as long as it comes from one of their own," said Republican National Chairman Michael Steele on Fox News Sunday.

Some GOP Senators also noted that Reid had rapped former Sen. GOP Leader Trent Lott (R-MS), who was forced to step down as GOP leader back in December of 2002, over a remark Lott had made at a birthday salute for Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) that some said was racist.

"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," Lott said, referring to Thurmond's run for the White House as a Dixiecrat.

Reid at the time reportedly said of Lott's remarks, "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."

In other words, Reid wouldn't be caught dead saying anything like that.  A lot of Republicans are arguing otherwise right now.

Looking back at the Lott case, I remember it very well.  At first, the Lott remarks didn't cause a ripple in the Political News Pool, as I and just about every other regular reporter who worked in the Capitol ignored Lott's remarks.

But then, a combination of conservative and liberal bloggers fanned the flames that ended up forcing Lott out.  It also didn't help that the Bush White House refused to throw him a life preserver.

If you don't remember it that way, read this interesting item by John Podhoretz from that time frame at http://bit.ly/5IiDh2 .

It seems sort of quaint to see him explain what "blogs" were.

So will Harry Reid be forced out like Lott?  It seems unlikely right now, but you never know where the story might go.

One last thing - how about the reporters who wrote this book?  They sat on this quote for more than a year?