Can You Reid Me Now?

But! Not to be outdone in the inanity department is the feigned Republican shock and outrage over the statements Harry Reid allegedly made about Obama back before the 2008 election – words to the effect that “he's a credit to his race” -- you know, that old paternalistic phrase that, believe it or not, was considered perfectly acceptable back when I was a kid. (The guy it was most often applied to, as I recall, was Ralph Bunche, who was almost as light-skinned as Julian Bond.) And as usual, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has, perhaps, the most level-headed view of the matter:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_661676.html

And they are absolutely right, of course. Anybody remember the time Hillary starting “gettin' down” at a political rally, like some black lady preacher? Yay-uhss! Hallelujah! And so on. But of course, this would be to overlook The Rules. And among The Rules is that liberals and Democrats cannot, by definition, say anything “racist”, whereas when it comes to conservatives and Republicans, virtually any utterance they make can be interpreted as racist, even if it doesn't include any explicitly racist terminology. The way this works, as you'll recall, is the attribution of “code” to words uttered by conservatives. Like, when they say “equality” that's code for “discrimination against blacks”. And when they start talking about alternatives to public schooling, that's code for “discrimination against blacks”. And when they talk about “welfare reform”, that's code for “discrimination against blacks”. And when they... well, you get the idea. And these rules are enforced with more vigor than any other rules, or laws, in this country. And this understandably leads to a certain amount of resentment among conservatives who feel that they're being... well... discriminated against. But simply pointing this out is another violation of The Rules – so they can't win, and they know it. And so, while I can't really blame the Republicans for wanting to hoist Reid on his own petard, it's clearly a lost cause. In fact, a hard-core conspiracy theorist might almost think that the quote was included in the book on purpose, just to create this reaction and offer the Democrats another golden opportunity to portray Republicans as racists and “haters”. And actually, hmmm... that's not a bad theory, is it?