Reid not only one with race issue

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid is not the only political figure dealing with a race issue these days.

Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has apologized after he told Esquire magazine that he was "blacker than Barack Obama."

"I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said for a story. "I saw it all growing up."

Blagojevich made the remark in a piece for the magazine's February issue. The story can be read here.

On Monday he took it back.

"It's a stupid metaphor to say I'm blacker than Barack Obama, that I apologize for," he said on WLS Radio in Chicago. "It's not appropriate for me, a white person, to stand out somehow and claim to be a black person, that's just wrong ... I was expressing frustration that the policies of this new administration still haven't really been focusing on the great deal of inequities we have in our society."

Blagojevich, a Democrat, was twice elected governor but was impeached and removed from office last year after federal prosecutors arrested him on corruption charges. He has pleaded not guilty. Among other things, Blagojevich is accused of demanding payoffs from whoever he would appoint to fill Obama's Senate seat after the Illinois senator ascended to the White House.

But talk about six degrees of separation. As a side issue, Reid became entangled in the Blagojevich controversy.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported in January 2009 Reid lobbied Blagojevich to name state attorney general Lisa Madigan or state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth to fill the Obama seat.

The newsaper reported Reid argued against appointing Reps. Danny Davis or Jesse Jackson Jr., or state Sen. Emil Jones for fear Democrats could not keep the seat in a statewide election. The three were African Americans, as was Roland Burris, the former Illinois general who ended up getting the appointment.

A Burris consultant tried to pin a race motive on Reid. But the Nevadan, on "Meet the Press" said the charge was nonsense and part of Blagojevich's corruption.

"He is making all this up," Reid said at the time. "Blagojevich is a corrupt individual, I think that is pretty clear."

"For anyone to suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that has involved his office in Illinois," Reid said on TV.

Reid initially refused to swear in Burris, charging he was tainted by association to Blagojevich. A week later the Senate leader relented.

Final note: One of the people who came to Reid's defense during the episode was Nevada Republican Party chairwoman Sue Lowden, the same one running against Reid this year.

Lowden said people can call Reid a lot of things, "but racist is certainly not one of them."

"Harry may be wrong on 99 out of 100 issues politically.... but to suggest that he's not comfortable around black people and wants to keep the Senate 'lily white' is absurd on its face and thoroughly offensive to all Nevadans of every political stripe," Lowden said.