7433: Rating Reid’s Remarks.

From The Chicago Tribune…

What Negro Problem?

By Clarence Page

What’s the big deal with Harry Reid’s comments about Obama?

President Obama says “the book is closed” on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s newly disclosed problematic praise of Obama in 2008. But Republican Chairman Michael Steele and a host of conservative pundits are not about to let it go.

“He said what? Harry and the Negro” blares a Drudge Report headline.

The conservative Weekly Standard quotes a 2002 Chicago Defender account of Obama’s criticism of former Republican Senate Leader Trent Lott on WVON — and notes ominously “If Mitch McConnell had said it…”

In other words, if current Senate GOP leader McConnell had said what Reid said, Dems would want his head.

GOP Chairman Steele, a gaffe-bag in his own right, called Reid’s remarks racist on Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC and claimed a “double standard” by Dems to give Reid a pass for “anachronistic language” that is “out of step with where America is today.”

Really, Mr. Chairman? Let us remember the context of Reid’s remarks. However blunt he may have been, he was praising Obama. Lott was praising Sen. Strom Thurmond’s defense of racial segregation laws.

And if Mitch McConnell had praised Obama the way Reid did? That would not be a gaffe; It would be a political miracle.

Elsewhere, some conservatives are comparing Obama’s defense of Reid to his call for radio host Don Imus to be fired for describing Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” Yes, Obamaphobes can be that tone deaf.

Ed Morrissey at the Hot Air blog says Reid questioned Obama’s “authenticity.” No, but Reid’s conservative critics appear to think complexion and “Negro accent” are marks of “authenticity,” when such standards are convenient to their cause.

Not to say that liberals don’t do the same thing when it is convenient. Witness the questions during the early Democratic primaries about whether Obama was “black enough.” All’s fair in mudball politics.

One thing for which conservatives should thank Obama: After years of being called racist, rightly or wrongly, by prominent liberal black leaders, he’s given them opportunities to turn the tables, whether it is deserved or not.

7428: Give The Man A Cigar Store Indian.

From The Chicago Tribune…

Michael Steele’s ‘honest injun’ comment sparks backlash

By Dawn Turner Trice

Some consider the word “injun” to be as offensive as the N-word, but apparently Republican National Chairman Michael Steele didn’t know that when he tried to underscore a point earlier this week by saying, “Honest injun on that.”

Steele was on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show Monday night promoting his new book, “Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda.”

“Our platform is one of the best political documents that’s been written in the last 25 years,” Steele told Hannity. “Honest injun on that. It speaks to some core conservative principles on the value of family, faith, life, economics. Those principles don’t change.”

Susan Power, 85, the last living founding member of Chicago’s American Indian Center, said she was offended by Steele’s comment.

“I’m really disgusted with him,” said Power, a longtime activist and member of the Dakota nation. “He’s an intelligent man and I know he’s probably kicking himself all over his office for saying it, but he should know better. It would hurt if he were white, but it hurts more because he’s black. How can you be so stupid?”

She said that “injun” is one of two words—the other is “squaw”—that should never be used because they are throwbacks to a time when Native Americans were defined almost exclusively by negative stereotypes.

“Are we so unimportant that he couldn’t have caught himself?” she said. “I would never use the N-word. I know not to. This man must know nothing about native people, that’s what’s so hard about this. Native Americans know everything about everybody else, but there’s so little interest in knowing who we are.”

Power said that Steele needs to make amends.

“I don’t think he did it on purpose,” she said. “But now that he does know, he should apologize.”

The Republican National Committee did not respond Wednesday to the Tribune’s inquiries about Steele’s comment.

6384: Black Friday.

Blackened news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele was named the first Black Republican National Committee chairman. Steele declared, “This is the dawn of a new party moving in a new direction with strength and conviction.” Hey, it beats moving in a new direction with Bush and Cheney.

• Exxon Mobil sold enough black gold to break its own record with a $45.2 billion annual profit. That beats the average profit of most U.S. companies by over $45.2 billion.

• Procter & Gamble reported 2Q profits rose 53 percent, although net sales dropped 3.2 percent. Regardless, the P&G accountants are likely purring, “My, Black Is Beautiful.”