Spin of the Day: Michael Steele Should Apologize Over Harry Reid Flap

It's quite amusing watching Democrats twist themselves into pretzels trying to defend Harry Reid from his "Negro" comments revealed this weekend. Now LA Times columnist Sandy Banks comes up with a most unique angle: It's Michael Steele who should apologize for comparing Reid's remarks with what happened to Trent Lott in 2002.

Harry Reid doesn't owe me an apology.

Sure, it was a little odd to see the term "Negro" used outside of a history class or documentary. Sounds like Reid is stuck in the last century.

But the Senate majority leader didn't say anything many Americans -- especially us Negroes -- don't already know.

If you're black, it is easier in this country to be light-skinned.

That's borne out not just by anecdote and experience, but by research documenting favorable treatment for fair-skinned blacks in criminal cases, employment prospects, even social and romantic liaisons.

Studies have shown that darker-skinned blacks are more likely to be unemployed, earn less and hold lower-prestige jobs. In the criminal justice system, convicted murderers with "stereotypically black" features are more than twice as likely as light-skinned defendants to receive death sentences from juries.

Don't blame Reid for the preference. Blame bigotry. Blame history.

Naturally, Banks ignores the history of the Democrats and their Klan associations. I guess she's forgotten about Robert Byrd and Al Gore's segregationist father.

Hilariously, she now calls on Michael Steele to apologize over comparing the plight of Reid with Lott.

I think the next apology ought to come from Michael Steele -- the light-skinned, dialectically flexible African American head of the Republican National Committee.

Steele has called for Reid to step down as majority leader, likening him to Trent Lott, the former Mississippi senator rebuked in 2002 for saying he was "proud" that his state had supported a segregationist candidate in the 1948 presidential election.

That candidate was Strom Thurmond, who famously declared during his White House campaign: "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."

Either Steele is playing politics with a combustible case, or he thinks Americans are so incapable of thinking intelligently about race that we can't tell the difference between Lott and Reid.

Now that offends me.

What offends me is Lott went on a nonstop apology tour over his remarks but there wasn't anyone on the left willing to accept his apology with lightning speed like the Democrats who quickly rushed to defend Reid. Lott's comments, while idiotic, were merely done as a tribute to a man celebrating his 100th birthday. They were relatively benign and weren't even noticed until some blogs made an issue out of it. Within 12 hours of Reid's comments being reported every Democrat under the sun rush to his side to defend him. I don't recall many Republicans defending Lott and in case Banks didn't notice, his career was pretty much over after that. Reid, meanwhile, isn't going anywhere right now, at least until he loses in November.

Double standards, anyone?