The Non-Trouble with Harry

So Republicans are tripping over themselves to cry shame on Harry Reid for having said during the presidential race – in a private conversation, mind you – that Barack Obama was a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Sounds fairly accurate to me. As it happens, I’m a fair-skinned Anglo-American with no English accent unless I care to fake one.

But they’re crying “double standard” and drawing comparisons to Trent Lott’s ouster (don’t you just love that word?) on account of his having supported Strom Thurmond’s presidential bid as a segregationist in 1948 and being proud of that support half a century later. Double standard, my ass. I think there’s a bit of a difference between “sometimes this guy puts on an accent” and “black people shouldn’t have rights.”

Whoever it is the GOP has hired to sit in a dark room and come up with pretexts for challenging everything the Dems do or say ought to come out for a little fresh air and sunshine.