Reid: Race Controversy Won't Stop Him From Re-election Run
"We've talked about this enough," says Harry Reid of comments on Obama's race.
Jan. 12, 2010— -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said any fallout from published comments he made about then presidential candidate Barack Obama's race will not affect his chances at winning re-election this year.
"We have a great campaign organization and staff," Reid, D-Nev., told reporters in Las Vegas Tuesday. "Our polls are just fine despite one newspaper and all the polls it's been conducting."
Reid has been under increased scrutiny since the weekend when a recently published book about the 2008 presidential election revealed the Nevada senator described Obama as a "light-skinned" African American "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one."
The newspaper he referred to was his hometown paper, Las Vegas Review-Journal, which on Saturday published a new poll that found 52 percent of state residents were "unhappy" with the senator and found him losing to a host of hypothetical Republican challengers.
Reid, a staunch ally of the president, made the Obama comments in 2008 to John Heilemann and Mark Halperin authors of the recently published "Game Change." Today he tried to close the book on discussing the comments. "We have talked enough about this," he said. "It's time to pass health care."
Today's remarks were the third time since Saturday that the majority leader addressed what he said in the book, even though Obama accepted an apology from the senator over the weekend.
On Tuesday, Reid told reporters in Nevada that he was not "going to dwell" on the controversy any longer.
"I'll continue to do my very best for the people of Nevada and this country. I'm not going to dwell on this anymore. It's in the book, and I've made all the statements I'm going to."
On Saturday, Reid issued a written statement, apologized, and admitted making "improper comments" to the book's authors
"I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans, for my improper comments," he wrote.
The incident reminded many of the firestorm that erupted over former Sen. Trent Lott's 2002 comments about the late Sen. Strom Thurman, leading some Republican politicians and pundits to accuse Democrats of a double standard when it came to racially insensitive language. Many have called for Reid to step down.
Lott, the Mississippi Republican, resigned as Senate minority leader Dec. 20, 2002, after publically praising Thurman's 1948 run for president on a pro-segregationist platform.
"One of the things that makes the American people frustrated is when they see time and time again liberals excusing racism from other liberals," conservative commentator Liz Cheney said on ABC's "This Week."
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele called for Reid to resign, also making the Lott comparison.
"If the standard is the one that we saw with Trent Lott as speaker -- as a leader at the time -- then I think this absolutely falls in that category," Steele said Sunday.
On Sunday, the president accepted Reid's apology.
"I accepted Harry's apology without question, because I've known him for years. I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice, and I know what's in his heart," Obama said. "As far as I'm concerned, the book is closed."