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In a recent column for CNN.com, fiery political analyst Roland Martin urged the President of the United States to get down and dirty with his political adversaries. Like, you know, jump ugly and go all street thug on 'em. Clearly spoiling for a fight — and with a curious, chest-bumping homage to the nasty culture of radical rappers — Martin wrote: Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price.

How Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown is like Barack Obama. When Senator-elect Scott Brown becomes president, odds are some reporter will write a political tell-all called Game Change – Part Deux: The Race of a Lifetime...Again. It’ll be a behind-the-scenes look at Brown’s trailblazing campaign to “transcend” Obama and become the first “post-Obama” president—with firsthand insider accounts from people on the ground who made it happen...quoted on double-secret deep background. And the biggest news will be a revelation that old-guard Republicans encouraged Brown to throw his hat in the ring because they quietly couldn’t stand Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin—and—their belief...

A new addition to the RVO blog. Our featured video for the last few days. Alfonzo Rachel is the founder of Macho Sauce Productions and contributor at Big Hollywood and PJTV. I like his stuff, so you’re going to see more of it here at RVO. Enjoy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's remarks during the 2008 presidential campaign that Barack Obama would have a good chance to be elected because he is "light-skinned" and speaks with a "Negro dialect" only by choice are ugly and insulting. But the real consequences of Obama's and Democrats' selective "forgiveness" of Reid go much deeper and are much more damaging than merely demonstrating that they hypocritically apply a political double-standard where criticism of "inartful" remarks is concerned. Taken together with the actions and comments of other Obama appointees, including especially Attorney General Eric Holder, they reveal the deep-seated racism that informs...

SLICKA MAN ALBULM

There is so much to enjoy about the Democrats' Harry Reid problem, and yet I find the whole spectacle horribly depressing. First, let's recap the bright side. The addlepated and vindictive Senate majority leader is under fire for saying -- according to the new book "Game Change" -- that Barack Obama would make a promising Democratic presidential contender because he's "light-skinned" and can speak "Negro dialect" only when he wants to. He deserves the grief. Just last month, Reid insinuated that fellow senators standing in the way of "Obamacare" were carrying on the tradition of the racists who stood in...

Here is video of New York Dem. Sen. Chuck Schumer responding to a question on Sen. Harry Reid's "no Negro Dialect" remarks about Barack Obama. Schumer declared the "case closed" because he knows Harry Reid and doesn't "think he has a bigoted bone in his body." . . . . (VIDEO)

Like vultures circling a wounded quarry, Republicans have wasted little time flocking over Majority Leader Harry Reid’s recent stumble into America’s racial midfield. The trigger is a 2008 interview that Reid gave to journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin for their new book Game Change, in which he observed that Barack Obama was electable because he was “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Reid’s apercu was artlessly delivered. In this it was par for the course for a gaffe-prone politician whose previous forays into questionable social commentary include calling President George W. Bush...

“This type of thinking by Senator Reid and others is sadly outrageous, no matter what the ethnic or political viewpoint happens to be. We are one human race, and polarizing people because of skin color is horrendous. “If Michael Steele or any other conservative had said anything like it, the remarks would be labeled racist and plastered over every available news outlet.

GOP turning Reid's opinion into political haymaker If it were not so pathetic, the political fallout over remarks made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would be hilarious. Reid is under attack for saying privately in 2008 that then-Sen. Barack Obama would be a successful black presidential candidate because of his "light-skinned" appearance and because he doesn't speak with a "Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one." Frankly, a lot of African Americans must have yawned. Reid only confirmed what a lot of black voters thought -- which is why Obama wrestled with questions about "his blackness" throughout his...

In his State of the Union re sponse to President George W. Bush a few years ago, Harry Reid included a heartwarming anecdote about a kid in his old hometown saying he wants to grow up to be like him. Did the 10-year-old realize that he, too, could be charmless and inarticulate and still be an awesomely powerful politician? For all the furor, Reid's comments about then-candidate Barack Obama being "light-skinned" and not speaking in "a Negro dialect" say less about the Senate majority leader's racial attitudes than his already well-advertised tin -- or is it iron? titanium? some metallic...

I was content to ignore the controversy surrounding Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his apparently audacious 2008 evaluation of Senator Barrack Obama as a viable presidential candidate due to his “light skin” and lack of “Negro dialect.” Then I turned on the radio Monday morning and heard talk radio host Mike Gallagher having a nervous breakdown over George Will and other conservatives who have defended Reid’s remarks. While I recognize Gallagher as a well-meaning conservative voice, he is also my least favorite. Gallagher consistently engages in blindly partisan commentary so two-dimensional it has the effect (albeit ad hominem in...

I cain't believe all the fuss that's been kicked up over what I said about th' president not bein' like a reg'lar Negro. Nope. Lawks a mercy, I was complimentin' the man. Clearly. Billy Bob said a few years back he'd be the one fetchin' the coffee; I don't see people getting' so danged riled up about that. Nope. That's way worse'n what I said. Clearly....

EXCERPT... LIZ CHENEY: But, you know, can I just point out that I think one of the things that makes the American people frustrated is when they see time and time again liberals excusing racism from other liberals. And I think that, you know, clearly, Senator Reid's comments were outrageous. And the notion that they're being excused... (CROSSTALK) STEPHANOPOULOS: But in a private conversation that he thought was off the record... CHENEY: I don't think racism is OK, George, whether you're saying it in private or in public. And the excuse of it by liberals, you know, is -- is...

The Senate's embattled majority leader is moving ahead with an “African Americans for Harry Reid” event this week as he seeks to weather a political firestorm sparked by his racially insensitive remarks about President Barack Obama. The timing of the launch of the “African Americans for Harry Reid” campaign group, which is scheduled for Thursday in Las Vegas, is coincidental. The luncheon had been scheduled for weeks. Reid has apologized for remarks he made in 2008 that described Obama as “"light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." The comments were reported in a new...

Harry Reid adds that only light-skinned African-Americans are electable in the U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apologized (who cares, noting that Don Imus lost his job for similar commentary about Black people) for saying the following about Barack Obama: "[Reid] made dozens of calls to apologize for telling authors of Game Change that Barack Obama had a good chance to become the nation's first black president because he was “light-skinned” and spoke with “no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.”."' Here is what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in plain English: African-Americans are not electable unless...

The Senate's embattled majority leader is moving ahead with an “African Americans for Harry Reid” event this week as he seeks to weather a political firestorm sparked by his racially insensitive remarks about President Barack Obama. The timing of the launch of the “African Americans for Harry Reid” campaign group, which is scheduled for Thursday in Las Vegas, is coincidental. The luncheon had been scheduled for weeks. Reid has apologized for remarks he made in 2008 that described Obama as “"light skinned" and "with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." The comments were reported in a new...

Leadership: The top Senate Democrat has exposed the hypocrisy of modern liberalism through his racially insensitive remarks. Trent Lott lost his post for humoring an old man. How will Robert Byrd's party honor him? Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has called for the resignation of Harry Reid as Senate majority leader over remarks published in a new book calling then-presidential candidate Barack Obama a "light-skinned" black man "with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one." If the Lott standard still applies, Reid should step down. Reid's propensity to shoot from the lip is legendary. He recently compared...

That a double standard exists for Republicans, for religion, for even whites and blacks and what they say on race and other subjects is a given. The media treat such comments differently depending on the policies of those who utter them. In fact, Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia can utter the phrase "white nigger" and it barely raises an eyebrow in liberal circles. Rarely is Byrd's background as a former leader in the Ku Klux Klan mentioned in polite liberal company. As long as the speech offender is a liberal who favors the social and political policies of...

Somebody owes Rush Limbaugh a big apology. Remember all the flak he took over his 'Barack The Magic Negro' parody--which was riffing off an LA Times op-ed by a black author which used the same term? Turns out, using "Negro" isn't objectionable. Don't take my word for it. Ask Rep. James Clyburn, former Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and current House Majority Whip. Clyburn made his surprising statement on this evening's Ed Show in the course of defending Harry Reid's "negro dialect" dictum. View video here.