In addition to criticizing U.S. Sen. Harry Reid for what it called “racially insensitive” comments about President Barack Obama, the National Republican Senatorial Committee dug up Reid’s remarks from 2002, after former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was forced to step down, after it was revealed that Lott said the country would have avoided “all these problems” had Strom Thurmond’s 1948 pro-segregation Dixiecrat presidential bid been successful.

Reid was quoted thus by the Associated Press, back in 2002:

Sen. Harry Reid said Republican Senate leader Trent Lott’s decision to relinquish his post Friday came as no surprise.

“He had no alternative,” the Nevada Democrat and Senate minority leader said. “Senator Lott dug himself a hole and he didn’t dig it all in one setting. He dug it over the years. And he couldn’t figure out a way to get out of it.”

…

Asked if the episode would serve as a warning to weigh his own words carefully, Reid said: “You play how you practice.”

“If you tell ethnic jokes in the backroom, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.”

And if by that Republicans mean to indict Reid for harboring secret racist thoughts, it’s a failure, since there’s no evidence that Reid has ever told an ethnic joke in a back room. In fact, there’s no evidence that Reid has ever successfully told a joke of any kind, in any room. (When he tries, he usually ends up sending his critics into a paroxysm of overblown, misinformed and misdirected rage.)

But, if the Republicans mean to indict Reid for an overt consciousness about race, and the possible ways race can be manipulated in politics, that’s another matter. If we can draw nothing else from Reid’s comments about Obama, we can draw this: The 2008 presidential race was most definitely not a colorblind affair, at least as far as Reid was concerned. (Then again, how could it be? The entire country was transfixed by the election of the first black president in the history of a nation still scarred by the legacy of slavery.) To Reid, however, Obama’s race was a positive, inasmuch as the president didn’t look or sound too black, which apparently would have been a political liability. So, Barack Obama, good. Sidney Poitier or Chris Rock, bad?

It’s most definitely not something Reid wanted to have voters — especially black voters — wondering about him as he heads in to his final and toughest election ever.