Now, That Would be Hypocritical

Look, it would be naive to believe that the press and the left wing didn't hold a double standard between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to race. Of course Harry Reid isn't going to be excoriated for his unsavory racial comments the way Trent Lott was for his.

But what's remarkable is to check out the stance of the President -- the same man who was ready preemptively to accuse a Cambridge cop of racism.

In contrast to his approach to the Lott affair, President Obama is ready to forgive and forget. That's fine, if that's really his genuine reaction to this sort of thing. But then he will have to spare us his indignation if, in the future, it emerges that some Republican has made some similarly repugnant remark.

After all, surely the President wouldn't have a differerent, higher standard for racial sensitivity for his adversaries than for his friends (or his own vice president!), would he? Because that would be hypocritical.

Note the obvious similarities between Reid's comments about the President (characterizing him as a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one

”) and VP Biden's (Obama is "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy"). Question for the African American community: Shouldn't someone be detecting a noxious stench of condescension emanating from the top ranks of Democratic leadership about now?

Incidentally, one need be no fan of the President's agenda -- nor an African American -- to find it deeply satisfying that those two (Biden and Reid) are the President's waterboys now.