In the book Game Change penned by John Heilemann and Mark Halprin, Harry Reid is quoted as saying that people supported Obama because he was “light skinned,” and because he exhibited no “Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” This implies that Reid thinks dark skinned Negroes cannot win election. Since then the left has circled the wagons and refused to treat Reid as they’ve treated Republicans in similar instances. It’s an obvious double standard.

Now, we can look to no better authority on purported racism than The Root Magazine, an Internet publication founded in 2008 by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (he of Beer Summit fame) which is published by the Washington Post. Gates’ online magazine pretty much proves that this double standard is alive and well by its treatment of two situations of obvious racist sentiment from the left. Gate’s magazine summarily rejects the accusations of racism by these lefties.

First up we look at a post by Root writer Omar Wasow who proclaimed Harry Reid in the rights for his comments as reported by Game Change. Wasow wonders what the big deal is with Reid’s comments? He says it is true that white people will vote for a light skinned black over a dark skinned one and that it was true that Obama only utilized a black vernacular “when he wanted to.” Interestingly, Wasow saw nothing wrong with Obama shifting from proper English to black vernacular at will. Wasow said that just made Obama a good politician. He obviously doesn’t see this as a cynical political ploy at all.

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Liberals are good at closing ranks behind their wounded and ignoring any character flaw as long as you are a believer in the cause.

So it should be no surprise that they are quickly and aggressively closing ranks behind Harry Reid (D-NV) in the wake of his antiquated views about President Obama’s blackness as revealed in the new book on the 2008 campaign, “Game Change.”

Republicans have, of course, drawn parallels to another famous majority leader’s race gaffe, Senator Trent Lott (R-MS).  There are major differences however that no number of Al Sharptons can – or should be allowed – to paper over.

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Saturday is my favorite day to read the newspaper. That’s the day reporters and editors print stories they know they have to cover but don’t want to get wide attention. The latest evidence for this theory is the Washington Post’s treatment of the revelation of remarks made by Sen. Harry Reid during the 2008 Presidential campaign:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apologized today for referring to President Barack Obama as “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect” in private conversations during the 2008 presidential campaign.

“I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words,” said Reid in a statement. “I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments.”

Poor choice of words? Exactly what other combination of words could Sen. Reid have used to convey his point? And what, exactly, was his point anyway? What was the relevance of these observations? We don’t have the full context for the remark in the Post’s reporting. It simply notes that Reid’s comments are revealed in a new book, “Game Change”, authored by reporters from Time and New York magazines.

Interesting that the two magazine reporters, Mark Halperin and John Heileman, have been sitting on their knowledge of Reid’s remarks for so long. Holding onto such a scoop to promote book sales would be understandable, except that the incident doesn’t even make it into the promotional blurb for the book. Just move along, nothing to see here.

Which got me thinking about Trent Lott.

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