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Politico quotes Steele's attacks on Reid, omits Steele's own recent comments

January 10, 2010 11:03 am ET by Jamison Foser

If you were a reporter, and you were typing up RNC chairman Michael Steele's call for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's resignation over a racially-insensitive remark, would you maybe find room to mention that just a few days ago, Steele used the phrase "honest injun"?

If so, that's another difference between you and the good folks at The Politico.

Politico quotes Steele blasting Reid for having an "old mindset" and "using language ... That harkens back to the 1950s."  That might have been a good place to insert a line about Steele's use of "honest injun," don't you think?

Incredibly, Politico's write-up of Steele's call for Reid's resignation includes this passage:

"When Democrats get caught saying racist things, an apology is enough," Steele said on "Meet the Press." 

"There has to be a consequence here if the standard is the one that was set in 2002 by Trent Lott."

Even while quoting Michael Steele claiming a pro-Democrat double-standard when it comes to racially-insensitive language, Politico doesn't mention Steele's own insensitive comment, which is less than a week old.

Politico really is just a GOP bulletin board.

UPDATE: Rather than challenging Steele's assertion of a double-standard by pointing out his own comments, Politico echoes it on their front page:

UPDATE 2: Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza does the same thing: 

Steele calls on Reid to resign

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should resign from office after acknowledging that he had described President Obama as "light skinned" and possessing no "Negro dialect" in a conversation with reporters.

"There is this standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own," said Steele in an interview with "Fox News Sunday. "But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism."

Like Politico, Cillizza doesn't bother to mention Steele's own controversial comment, made less than a week ago.

UPDATE 3: During Steele's appearance on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked him about the "honest injun" comment. That's right -- Politico and Cillizza offered less scrutiny of RNC chairman Michael Steele than did Fox News.

Tags: The Washington Post, The Politico, John Bresnahan, Chris Cillizza, David Rogers

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    • Author by Tbone Slickens (January 10, 2010 11:19 am ET)
      2 12
      Reid the closet racist...

      Nov 2010 can't come fast enough for this gem. Of course mmfa should rebuke Reid for this but alas they deflect. I guess IOKIYAD.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by magnolialover (January 10, 2010 11:26 am ET)
        9 1
        MMFA isn't in the business of writing stories or rebuking items that don't contain conservative misinformation, they are in the business of commenting on conservative misinformation within the mainstream media. But, you know what already.

        I think anyone here, can say that Reid said a bad word. He apologized for it. He should be held accountable for what he said, he was, and he acquiesced.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by bruce1ace (January 10, 2010 12:01 pm ET)
          1 7
          Imus apologized too but that wasn't good enough.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by political_left-religious_right (January 10, 2010 4:22 pm ET)
            2 1
            Bruce, you're too bright to go the blatant-false-equivalency route. No one on earth, yourself included, would say that calling a man a "light skinned Negro" is as bad as calling a woman a "nappy-headed ho."
            Report Abuse
            • Author by bruce1ace (January 10, 2010 9:16 pm ET)
              2  
              I will take that as a compliment thank you. I should clarify that my point was that apologies don't necessarily get your feet out of the fire automatically.
              Report Abuse
              • Author by political_left-religious_right (January 11, 2010 1:13 pm ET)
                1  
                Fair enough, and yes, I did mean it as a compliment.
                Report Abuse
            • Author by Tbone Slickens (January 11, 2010 6:23 am ET)
              1 1
              So we have different levels of racist comments now? One is not as bad as the other?

              Let's dig a little deeper. Why did Reid add the quantifier "light skinned Negro"? Is he implying that a dark-skinned person of color could become POTUS? What is a "negro-dialect" anyway? Why hasn't the MSM media or mmfA asked THAT question of Reid.

              Sorry dems, Reid is a boat anchor slowing the good ship Obama. Might be time to cut him loose. Sure looks like the people of the great State of Nevada are thinking along those lines.

              He will now have time to go enjoy the fruits of his labors with the shady land grant deals with AI's you dems looked the other way on.
              Report Abuse
          • Author by magnolialover (January 10, 2010 8:34 pm ET)
            1  
            It wasn't good enough for Imus' sponsors. Remember? Free market drove him out. He had sponsorship dropped from his show, which then made it financially untenable for the people he was working for before.

            Also, Imus did his little schtick on a national radio show listened to by millions of people. Reid made his comment, as I understand it, in a private conversation.

            Do you see the difference?
            Report Abuse
            • Author by bruce1ace (January 10, 2010 9:19 pm ET)
              1 2
              I do see the difference. On the other hand, Imus, being an entertainer could be expected to push the envelope with his language for the sake of being provacative while Reid really shouldn't.

              Report Abuse
        • Author by wesley (January 10, 2010 12:50 pm ET)
          8 1
          -- I think anyone here, can say that Reid said a bad word -- mags

          Count me out of your formula...Reid did not say a bad word. His comment should be based on the content of his statement...not on the use of the word negro.

          You can count me in the group that thinks Steele's call for Reid's resignation is infantile...honest injun.
          Report Abuse
          • Author by magnolialover (January 10, 2010 8:35 pm ET)
              2
            The thing of it is, he did say something kind of "bad". But, he also said it in a private conversation with someone else, it's not as if he said it on TV, or during debate in the Senate, or at a fundraising event, or a retirement party, or something a lot more public.

            I think Reid should call for Steele to resign as well, for his comment the other day.
            Report Abuse
            • Author by John Paradox (January 10, 2010 9:35 pm ET)
                 
              he also said it in a private conversation with someone else, it's not as if he said it on TV, or during debate in the Senate, or at a fundraising event, or a retirement party, or something a lot more public

              OMG.. do you realize that agrees with KYdork?
              Report Abuse
      • Author by MM_JF (January 10, 2010 11:34 am ET)
        9 1
        Maybe you missed the part where I wrote that Reid's comment was "racially-insensitive." My fault, probably -- I shouldn't have hidden it in the first sentence.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by DellDolly (January 10, 2010 4:07 pm ET)
          5  
          Most of the rightwingers who post here don't show great reading comprehension skills, and many times it's pretty clear that they don't read the articles before commenting, and their ideology blinds them when they do!
          Report Abuse
        • Author by mrhebert74 (January 10, 2010 6:58 pm ET)
          2  
          Well, JF, it was a compound-complex sentence, and one which asked readers to put ourselves in the place of another. Most wingnuts probably skipped it.
          Report Abuse
      • Author by The_Cat (January 10, 2010 11:56 am ET)
        3 1
        Way to go, Tbone Slickens! You totally missed the point of the thread, which is that Mr. Steele is busily throwing rocks from within the confines of his lovely glass home.

        By the way, there are some Dobbs, Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, and O'Reilly fans who troll here who will be very upset that you have set the 'racist' bar so very very low. I suppose they, like you, will continue with one standard for Democrats and one for Republicans.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by MickD (January 10, 2010 12:54 pm ET)
          3  
          Cat, you should have seen Liz Cheney on ABC's "This Week." Her perfumed hankie was straight up her nose on this issue. And it was George Will who decently dressed her down. It was great to see the rightwads fight.
          Report Abuse
      • Author by New Frontier (January 10, 2010 1:32 pm ET)
        5  
        Of course mmfa should rebuke Reid for this but alas they deflect. I guess IOKIYAD.
        Of course, the Post and Politico should rebuke Steele, but alas they, and you, deflect. IOKIYAR.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by wesley (January 10, 2010 12:02 pm ET)
      4  
      Sweet fancy moses...the word negro and the phrase "honest injun" now provoke cries for public, jounalistic lynchings?

      The attack on Reid's use of the word negro is scurrilous, partisan politics...and the attack on Steele's use of honest injun adds nothing to honest political discourse except a hearty "oh yeah" reply.

      Steele's call for the resignation of Reid is childish and more evidence that the RNC does not speak for mainstream conservatives.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by rwmacdonald2091 (January 10, 2010 12:18 pm ET)
        3  
        Hey there Wesley, Just who does speak for "mainstream conservatives" ? I'm dying to know here.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by magnolialover (January 10, 2010 8:37 pm ET)
          2  
          Yeah, I mean, if the head of the REPUBLICAN PARTY doesn't speak for mainstream republicans; who does?
          Report Abuse
    • Author by pilotx (January 10, 2010 5:03 pm ET)
      2  
      Those who live in glass houses. Reid apologized while Steele........
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Doug-Life (January 10, 2010 6:38 pm ET)
        1
      They are both idiots!
      What is "negro dialect"?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by John Paradox (January 10, 2010 9:38 pm ET)
           
        My guess would be 'Ebonics' (remember that?). Oddly, having grown up in the South (Florida - home of the 'crackers' [not the computer 'hackers']) the white 'rednecks' tended to speak pretty much the same as the 'blacks' as far as a notable dialect. (Used to be able to tell someone where they were born & raised after maybe ten minutes of listening to their speech patterns)
        Report Abuse

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