Harry Reid and Trent Lott: Not Seeing the Difference is Part of the Problem

Today Senator John McCain joined the Republican chorus, led by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, decrying the Democratic Party’s double standard on “racially insensitive remarks,” which has led them to stand behind Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid instead of calling for his ouster as they did in 2002 when then Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott made remarks that the Republicans view as equivalent. While the Republican outrage is intended to show their racial sensitivity, their apparent inability to see the difference between the remarks reveals these Republican Senators to, at best, be cynical partisan opportunists attempting to exploit this country’s racial issues for partisan gain.

The nature and impact of the remarks made by Harry Reid and Trent Lott are as different as using the words niggard (essentially a synonym for miser with no etymological relation to the other word) and the racial slur that starts with “N.”

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