Sen. Harry Reid called Obama the “N-word,” but hey it’s OK, he’s a Democrat…Right???

Majority Leader Reid apologizes to Obama for 2008 racist remarks

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 10, 2010

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

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

Obama said in a statement that Reid called him about the matter on Saturday afternoon. “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. “As far as I am concerned, the book is closed.”

Reid’s remarks about Obama were revealed in “Game Change,” a book detailing the 2008 race by Time’s Mark Halperin and New York magazine’s John Heilemann.

Harry Reid thought Barack Obama could become President because he was “light-skinned” and had “no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

I’m very interested in this “unless he wanted to have one” idea

Republican leader Steele: Reid should resign over remarks

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 11, 2010

Republicans moved Sunday to draw attention to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid’s racially tinged remarks about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race, with leading officials calling for him to step down and Democrats standing behind him.

The Republican National Committee’s chairman, Michael Steele, said Reid (D-Nev.) should vacate his office after acknowledging that he had described then-Sen. Obama as “light-skinned” and possessing “no Negro dialect” in a private conversation with two reporters. The reporters recounted the remarks in their book, to be released Tuesday.

“There is this standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own,” Steele, who is black, said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism.”