Should Harry Reid step down from Senate leadership?

[Thunder]

I am saddened by Harry Reid's racial remarks about Barack Obama.

I feel that in all fairness, once health-care reform is passed, he should step down from the Senate leadership post.

If he does not, he will make Democrats look like hypocrites, and we do NOT need that.

 

[Upchurch]

What're we talking about here, parky?

 

[Undesired Walrus]

Negro, etc.

 

[Darth Rotor]

The President seems to have made his peace with Harry over this.

"I accepted Harry's apology without question because I've known him for years, I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice, and I know what's in his heart," Obama said in his statement. "As far as I am concerned, the book is closed."

What's it to you, parky?

DR

 

[Cain]

Democrats seemed to have learned nothing from having Daschle as their Senate leader: it's not a position well-suited for people who face tough elections.

 

[XBoxWarrior]

WASHINGTON – Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid apologized on Saturday for saying Barack Obama should seek — and could win — the White House because Obama was a "light skinned" African-American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

While I find his comment to be accurate, I think his using the "negro" word was ill chosen for a man in his position. However, in his defense, the US census is test driving "negro" on about 30,000 census forms this year.

Trent Lott, on the other hand, was pretty far over the line with...

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 the years, either."

I believe Harry should step down for many reasons, least of which was this comment. He just doesn't appear to be a "leader". Sure, he bought off a couple votes to get the 60 votes, but that wasn't what I'd call "leadership".
His presence on the Tee Vee doesn't strike me as very powerful either.

He will most likely lose in '10 so he won't be the "leader" for long anyway.

I hereby announce my support for the next Senate Majority Leader, Senator Al Franken.

 

[Ausmerican]

If he had said 'ebonics' instead of the term he grew up familiar with would it have been a big issue?

 

[WildCat]

However, in his defense, the US census is test driving "negro" on about 30,000 census forms this year.

I don't see why it's any more offensive than "Caucasian", and it's actually much more acurate than the idiotic "African-American" tripe. "African" isn't a race, and not all blacks in the US are Americans any more than all whites are. If "African-American" was the only choice on the census, what box would a recent immigrant from, say, Nigeria, check?

It's not the word itself, but how Reid used it that's offensive.

 

[corplinx]

Yes he should. But he won't.

The topic was why he thought Obama could win.
The answer was because he was light skinned and didn't have a negro dialect.

He should step down from his leadership position. I think it just won't happen since they need the momentum of the 60 vote majority to make health care pass.

 

[corplinx]

I don't see why it's any more offensive than "Caucasian", and it's actually much more acurate than the idiotic "African-American" tripe. "African" isn't a race, and not all blacks in the US are Americans any more than all whites are. If "African-American" was the only choice on the census, what box would a recent immigrant from, say, Nigeria, check?

It's not the word itself, but how Reid used it that's offensive.

Its not the term negro itself, but the joining of it with dialect. Its sort of like saying afro-engineered.

 

[Peephole]

Negro isn't the nicest word to use, but this would be a ridiculous reason to step down.

 

[XBoxWarrior]

It's not the word itself, but how Reid used it that's offensive.

I'm not so sure. This quote came from a book about the campaign to be released Monday. Harry has some other zingers in there as well, that don't get the attention that the word "negro" gets.

The book also says Reid urged Obama to run for president, perceiving the freshman senator's impatience in Congress.

"You're not going to go any place here," Reid told Obama of the Senate. "I know that you don't like it, doing what you're doing."

Here, it appears Harry is in full support of a freshman Senator running for the big job, regardless of his race. Why he felt he wasn't going to go anywhere could be thrown out as racist, yet he doesn't use that pesky word, so Fox news can't run with it.

And some Palin zingers...

According to the book, aides to Republican nominee John McCain described the difficulties they faced with their vice presidential pick, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, is quoted telling Palin's foreign policy tutors: "You guys have a lot of work to do. She doesn't know anything."

While flying home to Alaska to see her son off to war, she told her team: "I wish I'd paid more attention to this stuff."

At another point, she is quoted as saying she would not have accepted the vice presidential nomination if she had understood the burden.

the Link

Harry will remain until he loses in November.

 

[Thunder]

Negro is sooo old fashioned, it is pretty much offensive. I mean, if Reid was 90 years old, maybe I would give him a pass.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

What's oddest about this whole thing is that it's RNC chairman Michael Steele who's playing the race card:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/10/reid.obama/index.html

 

[corplinx]

Negro is sooo old fashioned, it is pretty much offensive. I mean, if Reid was 90 years old, maybe I would give him a pass.

Again, its not the term negro in itself. Its the context and the usage in this case. Negro is used in a derogatory way.

He didn't say "he doesn't have a louisiana or st. louis accent". He didn't say "no hint of a drawl". He said he had no trace of a "negro dialect" inferring that negro dialects are somehow inferior.

On the flipside of it, the assumption is that he was "white enough to be president".


You can imagine if Harry Reid was asked about the work of a black engineer and said "well, its great quality work, not a sign of any afro-engineering".

 

[corplinx]

What's oddest about this whole thing is that it's RNC chairman Michael Steele who's playing the race card:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/10/reid.obama/index.html

?

What planet are you living on. This isn't even the "race card". This is the real thing for once.

 

[Cain]

As reported by Zach Galifinakis...

Obama once mentioned he uses Axe Body Spray, adding "or as it's known to my chocolate people, 'Ask Body Spray.'"

 

[Brainster]

This is not substantially different from Joke Biden's comment:

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

 

[corplinx]

This is not substantially different from Joke Biden's comment:

No, it really is different.

Biden was correct. Compared to Sharpton/Jackson (the previous african-american candidates), Obama was articulate, good-looking, clean (no scandals), etc.

Reid made a statement that implies negros are inferior.

Big difference.

 

[ravdin]

There's an odd double standard at play where it's unacceptably racist if Trent Lott says something nice to a 100 year old on his birthday, but we should forgive Harry Reid for denigrating the way many black Americans speak.

That's not to defend Lott- who I believe should have stepped down- but I also believe that leaders of the other party should be held just as accountable for their idiotic comments. Surely the Democrats can produce more able leaders.