Credit: FreakingNews.com

Ever since his quote was released as part of the publicity surrounding “Game Change,” the new book about the 2008 Presidential campaign, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been unable to completely get past a “Negro problem” that may ultimately prove to be much ado about nothing.

Some commentators, most notably conservative columnist George Will, a regular panelist on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” have already argued as much. Others who have stepped up to defend Reid from the charge of racism include historian John O. Bohrer, who wrote in The Huffington Post: “Honest-to-God initial reaction to the furor over Harry Reid’s comments: ‘And?’” As he pointed out, in the 1960s, the term was no more pejorative than “black” or “African-American” is today, and some older African-Americans still use it.

“Then again, none of these men are players in the political game, let alone at the stratospheric level Harry Reid is,” he continued.

Other commentators both left and right have also suggested the flap over Reid’s comments as reported in “Game Change” is overblown. In her essay trashing Republicans for blasting Reid in the liberal online journal Salon, Joan Walsh notes that “having a black president means that issues that some black people think can only be discussed in their community are going to come out in the open. For better, or worse, and in this case, I think better.” After noting that Reid has no doubt learned his lesson here, she defends his realpolitik: “But if progressive racial-justice Democrats don’t think politicians of every race size up the field in terms of competitive advantage — and sadly, even today, accord advantage to African-Americans who put white folks at ease, speak “white” or “standard” English, and even, yes, look “less non-white” — we’re kidding ourselves.

In his essay on the subject on FoxNews.com, Fox News political analyst Brit Hume also agreed with the substance of Reid’s assessment of Obama, calling it praise of his electability. “But,” he continued, “he was certainly not praising the American electorate, whom Senator Reid seems to view as still so infected by racism that only a black who doesn’t quite seem black could ever be elected president.”

For his part, Reid is eager to put the whole affair behind him. Yesterday, he told reporters, “I’ll continue to do my work for the African-American community. …I’m not going to dwell on this anymore.”

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