A gaffe

For those who come here to hear their favorite themes repeated, you picked the right day.

Harry Reid committed a “gaffe,” that is, he slipped and said something in public that was actually true. Such behavior usually creates a flurry of criticism.

It is true that Barack Obama is more white than black. If he had thicker lips, a flatter nose, darker skin, and had gotten his degree from Grambling; if he spoke in a dialect; if his family were not beautiful in a tasteful white kind of way, he’d likely be on a city council somewhere. Maybe even a community organizer.

It is also true that Harry Reid will be forgiven for this gaffe, and that had a Republican said the same thing, the Republican would not be forgiven and might have to leave office and go to work in a high-paid position in the drug or defense industry or banking. Such a dark fate awaited Reid save for his party selection.

Is this a double standard? Absolutely. At this point, I doff my cap two our only two allowable parties, and offer my sincere appreciation for the mere double standard. The normal triple and quadruple standards are set aside for this moment of candor. In the matter of race relations, they literally reek of an integrity that they show in no other area.