Tuesday
Jan122010
McConnell Mum On Reid Resignation
Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 11:17AM
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Ky.) was tight-lipped Tuesday on whether he believes his Democratic counterpart Harry Reid (D-Nev.) should resign in light of the controversy that has arisen over racially-tinged remarks made by the Majority Leader.
“Who’s going to be the Democratic leader of the Senate is up to the Democratic [caucus],” McConnell said during a morning press conference.
It was revealed over the weekend that amid the 2008 campaign Reid told reporters that then-Senator Barack Obama would benefit politically from having “no negro dialect” and being light skinned. The president accepted Reid’s subsequent apology.
McConnell declined to speculate on whether he would ask a member of his party to step down from a leadership position if they had made a similar remark.
In 2002, former Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) resigned from his position after remarking that the U.S. would be better off if now-deceased Senator Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) had been elected president in 1948 when Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform. At the time, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-Ill.) came to Lott’s defense, and dismissed the comment as being misconstrued.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (R), who joined McConnell Tuesday, offered his own take on Reid’s controversy.
“There’s a particular interest in our state because of what Senator Lott went through,” said Wicker. “I’m a lot more concerned that Senator Reid is the guy who said a couple years ago that the effort in Iraq is lost.”
“Who’s going to be the Democratic leader of the Senate is up to the Democratic [caucus],” McConnell said during a morning press conference.
It was revealed over the weekend that amid the 2008 campaign Reid told reporters that then-Senator Barack Obama would benefit politically from having “no negro dialect” and being light skinned. The president accepted Reid’s subsequent apology.
McConnell declined to speculate on whether he would ask a member of his party to step down from a leadership position if they had made a similar remark.
In 2002, former Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) resigned from his position after remarking that the U.S. would be better off if now-deceased Senator Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) had been elected president in 1948 when Thurmond ran on a segregationist platform. At the time, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-Ill.) came to Lott’s defense, and dismissed the comment as being misconstrued.
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker (R), who joined McConnell Tuesday, offered his own take on Reid’s controversy.
“There’s a particular interest in our state because of what Senator Lott went through,” said Wicker. “I’m a lot more concerned that Senator Reid is the guy who said a couple years ago that the effort in Iraq is lost.”
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