Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) — Republican National Committee
Chairman Michael Steele called on Democratic Senator Harry Reid
to step down as majority leader over comments he made about
then-presidential candidate Barack Obama during the 2008
campaign.
Steele said Reid, of Nevada, should suffer the same
sanction as former Republican Senator Trent Lott, who was forced
out of his leadership role in 2002 for comments about a 1948
segregationist campaign.
Obama yesterday accepted Reid’s apology for the remarks, in
which he said the U.S. was ready to elect a black president,
especially someone like Obama who is “light skinned” and
speaks “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”
Reid was quoted in an excerpt from a book on the campaign
that was posted on the Web site of The Atlantic. The revelation
may add to Reid’s difficulties in an already tough 2010 re-
election campaign and comes as Obama is counting on Reid to help
push health-care legislation through Congress.
Obama, a Democrat, said in a statement released yesterday
that he received a phone call from Reid, and that while the
Nevada senator’s comments were “unfortunate,” he accepted the
apology “without question.”
“I’ve seen the passionate leadership he’s shown on issues
of social justice and I know what’s in his heart,” Obama said
yesterday. “As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.”
Reid Standing Firm
Reid has no intention of either stepping down as majority
leader or dropping out of the re-election race, his spokesman,
Jim Manley, said. “Senator Reid has a long record of addressing
issues that are important to the African-American community,”
Manley said in an e-mail.
Steele cited the situation involving Lott in calling for
Reid to step aside.
Lott was forced out by fellow Republicans after praising
then-South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond’s 1948 presidential
campaign as the States Rights Democratic Party candidate. If
Thurmond had won that race, Lott said, “we wouldn’t have had
all these problems over all these years.”
He made the comments at a 100th birthday party for
Thurmond, who died in 2003. Lott retired from the Senate in
2007.
A double standard is being applied “where the Democrats
feel that they can say these things and they can apologize,”
Steele, who is black, said on the “Fox News Sunday” program.
“But if it comes from anyone else, it’s racism.”
Same Standard
Republican Senator Jon Kyl, interviewed on the same
program, said Reid should be treated no differently than Lott.
“I’d like to see the same standard applied to both,” Kyl,
of Arizona, said.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine was joined
by Senators Dianne Feinstein of California and Jack Reed of
Rhode Island in defending the majority leader.
The Lott and Reid episodes have a “totally different
context,” Reed said on the Fox program.
Kaine said that while Reid’s remarks “were unfortunate and
they were insensitive,” they were made while praising Obama
“and acknowledging that the senator could be a great
president.”
Obama’s statement was intended to make clear the president
accepted Reid’s apology and fully supports him, a senior
administration official said.
Reaching Out
Reid also was working to limit political damage, reaching
out to apologize to black lawmakers and civil rights leaders,
including the Reverend Al Sharpton, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond,
Wade Henderson, president of the Washington-based Leadership
Conference on Civil Rights, as well as Representatives James
Clyburn of South Carolina and Barbara Lee of California,
according Manley.
Reid, 70, issued a statement yesterday calling his remarks
“improper” and apologizing “for offending any and all
Americans, especially African Americans.”
“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,” he said.
Reid’s remarks are reported in a book, “Game Change” by
John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, which is scheduled for
publication this week. The excerpt says Reid made the comments
in the context of his “unequivocal” support for Obama. Reid,
the book said, “was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and
believed that the country was ready to embrace a black
presidential candidate.”
Re-election Bid
Reid, first elected to the Senate in 1986, is facing a
difficult bid to stay in office this year. A poll by the Las
Vegas Review Journal and published yesterday, gives Reid a 52
percent unfavorable rating and shows him losing to three
potential Republican opponents.
“Reid can’t afford any mistakes if he wants to get re-
elected,” said Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the
Rothenberg Political Report. “Reid wins by getting voters to
focus on his opponent and stories like this don’t help.”
Reid is among the most imperiled of the Democratic Party’s
incumbent senators, along with Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and
Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Democratic senators Chris Dodd of
Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who were also in
tough reelection battles, announced their retirements last week.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Julianna Goldman in Washington at
jgoldman6@bloomberg.net.