Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Gov. David Paterson (D-NY) have bucked their own party trend and slammed Harry Reid for racial remarks he made about then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008.
Following recent revelations of Sen. Reid’s racially-tinged comments about President Obama during the 2008 campaign, most Democrats have come to his defense, as have a few Republicans.
Sen. Feingold, on the other hand, became the first Democrat to criticize Reid for his remarks. Yesterday, he called the remarks “unfortunate and racially insensitive.”
When asked whether he thinks Reid should step down, Feingold responded:
I’m thinking about that and we’re going to be getting together as a caucus next week and the topic will come up. I have not decided whether these comments merit that or not.
Gov. Paterson said today that he has said “not only when it was a Democrat or when it was a Republican — that when people properly apologize for these types of mistakes that it doesn’t merit destroying their careers.”
However, he added:
But I would say that I thought the comments not only were reprehensible, but it’s amazing to think to print a whole book that so many people saw and nobody noticed that this ill-chosen remark was in the book? Didn’t anybody read the book before they put it out? I find it kind of shocking.
