Hope and Fail

Forgiveness for Reid, not for Lott, Imus

President Obama accepted an apology from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for comments he made during the 2008 campaign that are, well, racist. Before he was president, Obama wasn’t as gracious — calling for the ouster of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and radio host Don Imus after they made controversial remarks.

From the New York Times:

Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, apologized on Saturday for once predicting that Barack Obama could become the country’s first black president because he was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

… President Obama quickly expressed support for Mr. Reid.

“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,” Mr. Obama said in a statement, adding that the remark was “unfortunate.” “As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.”

Reid’s comments are reported in the book Game Change, which also quotes former President Bill Clinton as saying some borderline racist things about then-candidate Obama.

The president’s forgiveness puts Reid’s comments in context with the rest of the senator’s career. Something Obama was loath to do for others before he became president.

In 2002, after Lott praised retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., Obama said the GOP should drive the new majority leader out. From the Weekly Standard:

Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D-13th), who hosted WVON’s Cliff Kelley Show, challenged the Republican Party to repudiate Lott’s remarks and to call for his resignation as senate leader.

“It seems to be that we can forgive a 100-year-old senator for some of the indiscretion of his youth, but, what is more difficult to forgive is the current president of the U.S. Senate (Lott) suggesting we had been better off if we had followed a segregationist path in this country after all of the battles and fights for civil rights and all the work that we still have to do,” said Obama.

He said: “The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.”

And after Imus made disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, Obama told ABC News Imus should also be given the boot:

“I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus,” Obama told ABC News, “but I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude.”

Obama said he appeared once on Imus’ show two years ago, and “I have no intention of returning.”

… “He didn’t just cross the line,” Obama said. “He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America. The notions that as young African-American women — who I hope will be athletes — that that somehow makes them less beautiful or less important. It was a degrading comment. It’s one that I’m not interested in supporting.”

Both Lott and Imus apologized for their remarks, as did Reid. So what changed? Where’s the call for the Democratic party to “drive out” Harry Reid? Where’s the promise of having “no intention” to meet with Reid any longer? Why is Obama standing by Reid when he wanted Lott and Imus thrown under the bus?

The president needs Reid on health care. What’s more, it appears his standards on race relations in America differ depending on one’s party affiliation.