Republicans call on Senator Reid to quit post

[stevedeshazer]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party chief called on Senator Harry Reid on Sunday to step down as Senate majority leader over racial comments about President Barack Obama, while Democrats tried to put the issue behind them.

Reid, a key figure in pushing Obama's agenda through Congress, apologized to the president on Saturday over remarks published in a new book calling Obama a "light-skinned" black man "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one."

Both Obama and Reid are Democrats.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Reid should step aside as Senate majority leader, saying if a Republican made the same remarks Democrats would be "screaming for his head."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6091DO20100110

---

So Republicans are now sensitive to racism? Riiiight.

[ORDagnabbit]

1. theres a number of us progressives who think he should have quit the post a long time ago.

[L. Coyote]

9. and now everyone knows one reason why, and this is a new one!!!

[ShortnFiery]

13. Yes, I'd say "any port in a storm." .... QUIT Harry Reid! eom

[IndianaGreen]

16. Bill Clinton said as many racial comments during the campaign

He was even chided by Ted Kennedy. Reid is representative of the ruling political elites of this country. Party affiliation is just a marketing scheme.

[TheEuclideanOne]

33. Yep!

Harry, if you happen to be reading my post here, I don't care how you go, just go!

[Enrique]

40. exactly, and the race issue is just as phony for those progressives as for the GOP

using the race issue because they don't like Reid in the first place.

Notice that no one called for Biden to resign, and his comments were much worse? It's because they like Biden. Just like the GOP doesn't complain when any number of republicans say racist things.

[defendandprotect]

48. Agree . . . where the right meets the left . . . for entirely different reasons . . . !!!

If the Repugs had any fear that he would be replaced by someone to the LEFT

of Reid, they'd be begging him to say --

That could be something for us to think about ... with Emmanuel in the White House!!

[NJmaverick]

2. Yes Michael "honest injun" Steele is calling Ried culturally insensitive.

[Ian David]

3. If every Congressman who ever said something racist were to resign...

... we'd have a net gain of 30 seats in The House and 10 in The Senate.

[marshall]

17. Where were they ten years ago when Byrd was using the "n" word on national tv?

At least what Reid said was in private.

[Ian David]

22. He put it in a book. That's not private. But I get your point. n/t

[marshall]

23. Reid didn't put it in a book, somebody else did

He made that comment in private. God only knows what kind of comments Bill Clinton has whispered in private about various women through the years. Assuming that is true for the sake of argument, would hehave have to apologize to women the world over for that?

I just think there's a big difference between private comments/private lives and public comments/public actions. Holding Reid accountable for private comments is like impeaching a president for cheating on his wife.

[Ian David]

25. Oh! Thanks! I wasn't paying very close attention, I guess. n/t

[davidwparker]

4. He should stay until the voters of Nevada vote him out. Which

should be the next election.

[No Elephants]

14. No. He should do a Dodd, but stay on as majority leader until his term is up.

[WatchWhatISay]

5. Maybe word that he is planning on quitting has leaked out

And they are just trying to look like they caused it.

In any case we should replace him with someone more progressive and more courageous. That should shut them up. That is what the Republicans would have done (teach those Dems to be careful what you wish for).

[Raspberry]

8. Was that what happened when Trent Lott had to resign

over his offensive about Strom Thurmond? I don't see a lot of difference in the two situations.

[No Elephants]

15. Well then, you are 0 for 2. Wrong on the substance, and singing the Republican Party line.

Lott said this country would have been better off with a proud racist as President. If you can't see a difference between that and assuming that a light skinned African American would be more electible than a darker skinned one, then you agree with Michael Steele and Dick Gregory on Meet the Press this morning.

[valerief]

6. Another side show issue to keep the focus away from Wall St. and Wars. nt

[L. Coyote]

7. Remember when they pushed Ted Stevens out of office, and Larry Craig, Vitter,

oh, wait :rofl:

Sorry Harry, you lack R immunity from doing anything wrong!

[Cirque du So-What]

10. I want Reid out as Majority Leader as well

but I want the calls to come from Democrats. As for the 'pugs, fuck 'em & feed 'em fish heads! Let 'em clean their OWN fucking house before worrying about ours.

[mvd]

12. Yes, NOW the Repukes care about race issues

This is all political with them, wanting to cause dissension.

[Bozita]

11. How about Joe "You lie!" Wilson?

[No Elephants]

18. Did the Republicans also call for the resignation of the authors of all those embarrassing emails?

You know, the emails with the watermelon patch replacing the White House front lawn and other racist "jokes?" As I recall, the various authors either apologized or remained silent. I don't recall any calls for their resignation from prominent Republicans, though.

[zeemike]

19. Reid has been a good friend to them in many ways.

And the reason for this is probably to get the Dem's to rally around him and save his position in the senate.
It is a false flag strategy.

[rocktivity]

20. Rocktivity calls on Michael Steele to quit HIS post

or at least, to quote him directly, shut up.

:boring:
rocktivity

[jberryhill]

21. LOL /nt

[ezdidit]

24. President Obama IS a light-skinned Negro!

And he does inflect his oratory with a Southern accent from time to time, when he wants to sound like an ordinary plain-spoken person. It's a mannerism that he doesn't need to use; people are going to think he's smart and may be arrogant, too, no matter how he says whatever he says. I want my Presdient to be smarter than me!

And, public use of the term, "Negro," is validated by a question on the 2010 census when it asks most recipients, "Are you Black, African American or Negro?"

The problem is that Reid's comment insulted a good many people who are genuinely color blind and post-racial. The problem for me is that Reid openly made a political distinction and a calculation that insults me, a White male who struggled and overcame - within a segregated environment - to appreciate the ideas and the feelings of my fellow human beings regardless of race or color, creed or national origin.

But maybe Reid's just realistic, and that can hurt self-deluded nitwits and hypocritical gasbags at all strata of society - particularly parties out of power.

[kayla9170]

30. WTF......President Obama is African-American

His Father is from Africa and his Mother was born in Kansas, which is in America the last time I checked. He was born himself in the American state of Hawaii. Were does that equal Negro to you? :wtf: :puke: :mad:

[judesedit]

26. If Reid has to quit for that reason, most of the republicans will have to leave their positions, too

The GOP makes so many racist comments on a regular basis that you'd think they still had on their very much missed white sheets.

[kayla9170]

27. Negro....Did Harry Reid think this is 1960 not 2010...

As a proud African-American, I believe that Harry Reid should quickly resign after this comment. I do not give a flip, flying, flip if he said the comments in public and private....these types of comments should not EVER come out of the Majority Leader of the Senate....who happens to be a Democrat!

Comments like these just go to show that Racism in America will NEVER, EVER change....regardless of a African-American President being elected. The more crap I hear about President Obama, the more I feel as if the vote of certain individuals for the President was a GUILT vote, meaning to make up for years and years of racism against African-American people. Also, because the country was so crapped up from the Presidency of George Bush....some people though..."We might as well give it to the "Black" man so at least if it does not get fix, we do not have to vote for another one of them out of GUILT".

That is why IMHO we have the Teabaggers, Jane Hamster's, Arianna Huffington's and many, many others...that call themselves Democrats, attacking the President on items that would have given Bush at least a couple of more years to fix if he was handed the same mess.

It is high time to call this crap for what it is..........GUILT, REGRET and now RACISM ,period.

[doodadem]

54. Just Curious

What is your take on NAACP?

[robo50]

28. OH Poo! Even George Will said today that the comment was

"accurate"... and not at all racist. That's HIS take on it.

Mine?

Insensitive, yes, out-of-touch with modern speaking in the USA, but not really "racist".

This is just another Republican false outrage over something very inconsequential.

[kayla9170]

32. History of the Word Negro

"The word Negro was used to refer to a person of Black ancestry prior to the shift in the lexicon of American and worldwide classification of race and ethnicity in the late 1960s. The appellation was accepted as a normal and was used by those of Black African descent as well as those of non-African black descent during the eras prior to the Civil Rights movement.

During the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, some African American leaders in the United States objected to the word, preferring Black,<1> because they associated the word Negro with the long history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination that treated African Americans as second class citizens, or worse. During the 1960s Negro came to be considered an ethnic slur.

The term is now considered archaic and is not commonly used, and is widely considered a racist slur."

Source- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro

The Democratic Party can continue to defend themselves or Harry Reid for using this word if they want but if they do, they could seriously lose a entire African-American voting block under the age of 45 that were born after 1965....TRUST ME, IT'S TRUE! My generation, Generation X especially that would rather jump off a cliff before being associated with that RACIST term "Negro"!

[peace13]

41. Don't mean to be rude but ...Wikipdedia?

Is that the best your generation has to offer. I'm good with the argument but Wikipedia?

[kayla9170]

45. Do you have a problem with Wiki....or the TRUTH

On what the word truly means? The point is that is should not be used, it is no use for it being used, Harry Reid was WRONG to use it and if he cannot manage to have his so-called private conversation, be kept PRIVATE, he should resign. Let's hope this is the LAST statement like this we will hear from Harry Reid.

[Ed76638]

29. This isn't racist, nor racialist.

It's merely an observation by someone who witnessed him speaking a certain way in front of black crowds, and another way in front of crowds where the majority of people were white.


In the words of Cenk Uyger: LET HIM GO!!!!!!

[bluestateguy]

31. I don't see the liberal blogosphere having Reid's back on this one

Not because we are offended by what he said, but rather, because he has been a milquetoast leader, and we would not be sorry to see him go.

Just don't replace him with Durbin!! Mr. Crying Apology on the Senate floor because he told the truth about Abu Grahib, and conservatives criticized him for it.

[JustAnotherGen]

34. Michael Steele

Can go hang. He doesn't get to call on anyone in the Democratic Party to do anything. His best bet? Run some good races in the Fall. But that doesn't guarantee that there won't still be a majority of Dems in the Senate. It also does not guarantee that Reid WILL be there. Just means they might have to contend with an actual liberal being in the post - then that will give them something to 'call for, cry over, be panty waists about'.

When they start firing everyone who sent a racist email, You Lie Wilson, etc. etc. they can talk. But in the meantime - it's a sky is falling tactic.

[Tx4obama]

35. The people that should resign NOW are....

'Honest Injun' Steele
'You Lie!' Joe Wilson
Gov. Sanford
Sen. Ensign
Sen. Sessions
Michelle Bachmann (cause she's nuts)
And quite a few other REPUBLICANS

[madmom]

36. Did he call him a Negro or did he say he had no Negro dialect? I know

it may sound nit-picky to some but there is a difference. He called him a "light-skinned black man" It's no different than when someone said someone (don't remember who) had the southern accent when they were speaking in the south.IMO

[jmondine]

37. Okay, let's offer to replace him with Bernie Sanders

Watch how quickly the rethugs backpedal then.

[Gman2]

38. Great Idea. Lets help the fucki9ng pukes Van Jones ALL our people!

Fucking brilliant.

[rateyes]

39. I agree. He should step down, and Feingold should take his place.

[Guilded Lilly]

42. Start from scratch.

I call for every single politician who has ever said anything that anyone else in the world thinks might be offensive in any context for any reason...to resign.

Blowhards...all of them.

[groundloop]

43. Republicans are suddenly sensitive to racial issues !!!!!!!

Yeah, right !!!

C'mon Michael, you gonna' try sellin' me that ocean front property in Arizon too ?

[LiberalFighter]

44. The Republicans that call for Reid to quit should go crawl in a hole

and never come back out.

[Gman2]

46. Same with the opportunists here, that would conspire with pukes, to do what they will.

[gtar100]

47. Careful what you wish for...

I wouldn't be shedding a tear if Reid stepped down. It least it would give an opportunity to get a real leader in the Senate Majority Leader position. But given the pathetic state of the Senate, I wouldn't be holding my breath for anybody progressive in the position. The powers that be seem to love compromising democrats.

[Exultant Democracy]

50. yeah what you said

[David in Canada]

49. Why?

Harry Reid has been the greatest asset for the Republicans! They got the health care "reform" scam that their corporate masters wanted and they get to feign outrage.

The Senate Democrats need to dump Reid and elect Russ Feingold as Majority Leader!

[classysassy]

51. The racist party

is having a hissy fit,get over it you slimy thugs,you bums will do any thing to get back in control.

[cstanleytech]

52. This is BS!!!

And by that i mean they are doing it clearly for political partisanship in order to try to hurt the dems because if they truly thought he was out of line they would have also been calling for Wilson to resign but they didnt because he is a republican.

[samsingh]

53. repugs continue to be the jokes that they are.

[BreweryYardRat]

55. Oy. If they're going to be manipulative, they'll need do it better than that.

The Republicans are really degenerating into laughingstocks, aren't they?

[Algorem]

56. always amazing when Obama tries affecting black preacher intonations

and noone ever says anything

he's such a 100% ridiculous phony

his mentors had to blackify him by sending him to the chicago hoods

so they could put him in office when the time came

[damntexdem]

57. Well, I call on all Repubican senators to quit.

Both calls will likely be equally effective.