Harry Reid apologizes for "light skinned" remark about Obama

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apologized today for referring to President Barack Obama as "light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect" in private conversations during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"I deeply regret using such a poor choice of words," said Reid in a statement. "I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments."

President Obama said in a statement that he and Reid had spoken about the matter on Saturday afternoon. "I accepted Harry's apology without question because I've known him for years, I've seen the passionate leadership he's shown on issues of social justice and I know what's in his heart," said Obama. "As far as I am concerned, the book is closed."

The Senate Majority Leader was officially neutral in the primary fight between Obama and then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Reid's remarks about Obama were revealed in "Game Change", a book detailing the 2008 race penned by Time's Mark Halperin and New York magazine's John Heilemann.

Reid has written extensively about his relationship in a memoir entitled "The Good Fight" that was released last year. In that book, Reid recalled talking to Obama about running for president in 2007 and telling the then junior Senator from Illinois: "If you want to be president, you can be president now."

That same memoir contained an anecdote in which Obama told Reid he had a "gift" after delivering a speech on the Senate floor regarding then President Bush's approach to the war in Iraq. That remark drew considerable controversy from the Obama's Republican critics.

The details about Reid's remarks were first reported by the Atlantic. Reid's apology was first reported by the Jon Ralston.

Reid's apology comes on the same day that a new poll conducted by the Las Vegas Review Journal showed him facing an uphill fight for re-election in 2010. Reid trailed former state Republican party chairwoman Sue Lowden by a 50 percent to 40 percent margin and was behind businessman Danny Tarkanian (R) 49 percent to 41 percent. Only one in three voters viewed Reid favorably while 52 percent saw him in an unfavorable light in the poll.

Tarkanian said that Reid "disgraces himself almost monthly with some disparaging remark about his constituents, political opponents, or now the president," in a statement released Saturday afternoon.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee echoed that sentiment in a statement of its own release Saturday afternoon. "For those who hope to one day live in a color-blind nation it appears Harry Reid is more than a few steps behind them," said communications director Brian Walsh. "Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a long history of embarrassing and controversial remarks by the senior Senator from Nevada."



Despite Reid's dismal poll numbers, he told the Review-Journal that he has no plans to follow his colleagues Byron Dorgan (N.D.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.) into retirement. "I am absolutely running for re-election," Reid told the paper. "These are difficult times for Nevada and as the majority leader of the Senate I have been able to take action to address those challenges."

It's unclear whether the near-certain controversy his remarks about Obama will cause might force Reid to reassess his re-election plans.