Republicans: Step down, Harry

WASHINGTON -- Top Republicans on Sunday demanded Sen. Harry Reid step down as Senate leader over a racial observation he made about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, while Democrats sought to rescue the embattled Nevadan.

Republican Party chairman Michael Steele said Reid should pay the same price for making racially charged comments as did Republican Trent Lott of Mississippi, who was forced to resign as Senate majority leader in 2002 after praising Sen. Strom Thurmond's run for president in 1948 on a segregation platform.

Anything less, Steele charged, would expose Democrats as endorsing a "double standard" on race and correctness. Steele leveled the charges on two Sunday talk shows, a day after Reid's gaffe, the latest in a series of blunt and embarrassing statements, came to light in an excerpt from a new book on the campaign.

The book, "Game Change," reported Reid was impressed with Obama, and that he said in a private conversation that Obama could be elected president because he is "light-skinned" and has "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

The excerpt, posted late Friday to the Web site of The Atlantic Magazine, suggested the comment was made to the book authors, journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, and did not provide any further context. The storm of reaction, and Reid's immediate embarrassment and apology, indicated any such nuance hardly would make a difference.

Republicans used the Sunday talk shows to put the squeeze on Reid. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona called for the Nevadan to step down as majority leader. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the head of the Republican National Senatorial Committee who is overseeing GOP efforts to unseat Reid in November, also called for him to relinquish leadership.

"When Democrats get caught saying racist things, you know, an apology is enough," Steele, who is black, said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "If that had been (Republican Senate leader) Mitch McConnell saying that about an African-American candidate for president of the United States, trust me, this chairman and the (Democratic National Committee) would be screaming for his head, very much as they were with Trent Lott."

Steele, who will be in Las Vegas today on a previously scheduled trip, continued, "From my perspective, whether (Reid) steps down today or I retire him in November, either way he will not be the leader in 2011."

But Reid, 70, indicated he was not going anywhere, and the immediate response from other Democrats showed no chinks in his support. With Democrats in strong control of the U.S. Senate, it would take an insurrection to remove him.

Appearing on "Face the Nation" on CBS, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said there was no need for Reid to step down.

"First of all, all of us are imperfect," Feinstein said. "Clearly, this was a mistake. Clearly, the leader misspoke and he's also apologized. The president has accepted the apology and it would seem to me the matter is closed."

With the news breaking over a weekend, the story fell right into the wheelhouse of the Sunday talk shows, where it was given added momentum.

NBC political analyst Chuck Todd predicted Reid will remain as Senate leader, in part because Democrats can't afford to be seen in any further disarray. The announced retirements last week of Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, and of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, have fostered the perception of a party on the run from bad reviews on the economy and health care.

If Reid were not majority leader, Todd said, there would be a "whisper campaign behind the scenes to get Harry Reid to do the right thing and retire."

Asked whether Reid's remarks hurt him with Obama, Todd said: "Not getting health care done would hurt his relationship with the president."

No matter what happens in Washington, for Reid the episode focused unwelcome attention on his weakened standing in Nevada. A new poll released Saturday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed him at a low in the estimation of constituents, and getting beaten by any of three top GOP challengers if the election were held today.

One of the Republicans, former state party chief Sue Lowden, said Reid's history of impolitic remarks is "embarrassing" to Nevadans, including times when he was calling former President George W. Bush a loser and a liar, and when he stated that on hot summer days senators can "smell the tourists coming into the Capitol."

"It's not about this comment," Lowden said Sunday in an appearance on Fox News Channel. "It's about the next comment and the one after that."

In response to the poll numbers that show only 33 percent of Nevadans have a favorable opinion of him, Reid said he would not abandon his campaign for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate. A spokesman said the same on Sunday, while rebutting GOP suggestions that Reid holds skewed views on race.

"Senator Reid will stay in his position as majority leader and will run for reelection," spokesman Jon Summers said in an e-mail. "As the leader in the fight to pass the Voting Rights Act and legislation banning hate crimes, Senator Reid has a long record of addressing issues that are important to the African-American community. His Republican critics who are looking to politicize the issue can't say the same.

"Senator Reid will continue working today, tomorrow, and the days ahead, to move our nation forward with policies that create jobs, make health care affordable and help struggling families in Nevada and across the country," Summers said.

Fox News reported that Reid, who is at home in Searchlight, took part in phone calls Saturday with Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and aides to Feinstein and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, to go over talking points for the Sunday interviews. Reid aide Tom Brede said it was routine for Reid to check in with senators preparing for the talk shows.

On Sunday, Democrats came to Reid's defense.

"I think the case is closed because President Obama has spoken directly with the leader and accepted his apology," said Democratic Party chairman Tim Kaine. "The comments were unfortunate and they were insensitive," even though Reid made them in the context of praising the candidate.

"I think Senator Reid stepped up, acknowledged that they were wrong, apologized to the president," Kaine said. "He's accepted the apology, and we're moving on."

Comparing Reid's situation with that of Lott, Sen. Jack Reed noted President Bush gave Lott a big push out of Senate leadership for his remarks while Obama accepted Reid's apology.

"Harry Reid made a mistake, he owned up to it, he apologized. I think he is mortified by the statement he made, and I don't think he should step down," Reed said. "He is a valuable member of the Senate."

At a party to celebrate Thurmond's 100th birthday in December 2002, Lott said that if Thurmond had won the White House in 1948, the nation "wouldn't have all the problems over all these years." He resigned as majority leader under pressure from Democrats and from members of his own party a short time later.

To blunt Steele's criticism, Democrats on Sunday pointed to comments he made in 2002 defending Lott. The then-incoming Maryland lieutenant governor was quoted by the Washington Times as saying Lott's remarks were "a poor choice of words."

"I know Senator Lott personally and understand him to be compassionate and a tolerant statesman," Steele was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Also unlike Lott, Reid moved quickly once the book excerpts appeared. He called Obama on Saturday to apologize. He also called African-American members of Congress and a number of national and Nevada civil rights leaders including the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP chairman Julian Bond, and Wade Henderson, chief executive officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Obama said in a statement Saturday he accepted Reid's apology "without question because I've known him for years. I've seen the passionate leadership he has shown on issues on social justice and I know what's in his heart."

Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents Washington, D.C., as a delegate in the U.S. House, said Reid has earned support from African-Americans and warned that Republicans who try to capitalize on this episode "will not find a welcome mat in the black community."

In Nevada, the leaders of the Las Vegas and Reno branches of the NAACP said in a statement Sunday that Reid's voting record has earned "the highest ratings on issues of critical importance to the African-American community," and his apology should be accepted.

"One need only look at Senator Reid's proven record of leadership on civil rights and social justice to know where his heart truly lies," said the statement by Lonnie L. Feemster of Reno and Frank Hawkins Jr. of Las Vegas.

Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault can be contacted at 202-783-1760 or stetreault@stephensmedia.com.