Harry Reid’s cynical paternalism and his blanco dialect got him in trouble. The fact that a liberal statist is expected to be cynically paternal toward blacks is getting him out of it. Barack Obama’s “typical white person” grandmother might have said that very thing.
My favorite comments on Harry Reid’s recently reported remarks; below. The links are worth a click.
Ann Althouse, Althouse
If by “racist,” you mean somebody who feels antagonism toward black people, then Harry Reid isn’t a racist. Harry Reid thinks we are racists.
If by “racist” you mean somebody who would use other people’s feelings about race in a purely instrumental way to amass political power, then Harry Reid is a racist.
Mark Steyn, The Corner
To those of us who find identity politics repugnant, it would seem to confirm that an unhealthy obsession with “anti-racism” eventually becomes so condescending it’s indistinguishable from racism — or, at any rate, the micro-classifications of apartheid — to the point where bigtime Dem honchos are sitting around saying, “What we need here is a clean octoroon.” “Well, this high yaller from Chicago might do the trick.”
Scott Ott, Washington Examiner
Sen. Harry Reid, in an effort to increase the popularity of the imperiled health care reform bill, on Monday added a provision requiring insurance companies to pay 100 percent of the cost of treatments intended to lighten the skin of African-Americans.
…”It’s not fair that the path to the Oval Office is blocked for my darker-hued friends,” Reid said Monday. “Skin-lightening therapy will open the corridors of power to a new generation of African-American leaders. And thanks to my amendment, this treatment will be free at last.”
(So as to prevent any erroneous viral spiral, that last is satire.)
H/T Instapundit
PS, 4:47PM Surely, Mr. Ott should have noted this Amendment is to be known as the Michael Jackson Memorial clause.