Wicker says Nevada voters will judge Reid
WASHINGTON — While some Senate Republicans are calling for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to step down, Sen. Roger Wicker said Nevada voters will decide the fate of the Nevada Democrat.
“Having come back from being with our troops, I’m a lot more concerned, frankly, that Senator Reid is the guy who a couple of years ago said the effort in Iraq was lost,” said Wicker, who just returned Monday from a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Reid has come under fire for comments he made in 2008 when he said Barack Obama stood a good chance of being elected because he was a “light skinned” black with no “Negro dialect.” Reid has apologized for the comment. Obama and black lawmakers have accepted the apology and stood by Reid.
Some Republicans, however, complain that Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott was treated differently after racially insensitive remarks he made in 2002.
Lott, a Republican, resigned after a firestorm of criticism from Republicans and Democrats after he said the country would have been better off if Sen. Strom Thurmond had been elected president. Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina, was a segregationist.
Clarion-Ledger
1/13/10
Magnolia Tribune
