Mary Landrieu's Silence On Reid "Is Deafening"
by Lisa Mascaro (excerpt)

LAS VEGAS SUN

WASHINGTON -- Republicans opened a new line of attack against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today, questioning why fellow Democratic senators who criticized racially insensitive remarks by a former Republican Senate leader are not similarly calling for Reid to step down. On the third day since Reid's remarks about President Barack Obama being "light-skinned" and not speaking "with a Negro dialect," Republicans show no sign of relenting on what they see as a damaging campaign issue for the Nevadan and his party.

They noted that when former Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi was forced to resign in 2002 after saying the nation may have been better off had segregationist candidiate Strom Thurmond won the presidency in 1948, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana said a Democratic leader would face similar scrutiny.

Now, Landrieu’s silence on Reid "is deafening,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson Marchand. “It’s difficult to view Senator Landrieu’s silence as anything other than a clear double standard – especially in light of her own statements in 2002 that a Democratic leader ‘would not be allowed to keep their position’ if they made such a racially-charged statement.”

COMMENTARY: Just Another Reason Mary Should Be Gone.

What About Mitch? Where Does He Stand On This Touchy Subject?