Reid fires back on Obama replacement appointees

By Lisa Mascaro

Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009 | 11:10 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shot back today at critics who have suggested racial politics is at play in his reported preference for white elected officials rather than African-Americans as potential appointees to replace Barack Obama in the Senate.

Reid, in an extensive interview on “Meet the Press,” also suggested that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is making up the details of a phone conversation the two had in which Reid offered his preferences in the days before the governor’s arrest for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s seat.

Reid spoke to Blagojevich, as he did other governors with open Senate seats, about possible appointees, in a call the majority leader’s office has said was routine.

Reports said Reid expressed support for veteran Tammy Duckworth and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but rejected three African-American lawmakers he believed may not be able to win the seat in a subsequent election.

Republicans and supporters of Roland Burris, the former Illinois official Blagojevich appointed to the seat, have begun to suggest race is at play – a notion Reid quickly refuted as a distraction.

“To suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that’s involved his office in Illinois,” Reid said, detailing his own long history of supporting black officials in Nevada and Washington.

Reid and his fellow Democratic senators had called on Blagojevich to resign and refrain from making an appointment, believing even a worthy candidate would be tainted by the scandal.

Reid spoke positively today about Burris as well as other potential black lawmakers who had been mentioned as possible appointees.

Reid further insisted he didn’t tell Blagojevich who to appoint. The call was reportedly taped as part of the ongoing federal investigation into the governor.

Despite a debate among scholars over the Senate’s power to block the appointment Reid insisted the Constitution gives the chamber final say in accepting members. Democrats have vowed to block Burris from being sworn in on Tuesday, but Reid hinted today “there’s always room to negotiate.”

Republicans continue to suggest a special election to fill the seat would be the best course of action.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the Senate, said today that Democrats fear Republicans would win the seat in a special election.

“The only way to clear the air and to have a successor chosen in Illinois that everybody can have confidence in, and a process that they can have confidence in, would be to have a special election,” McConnell said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

Reid plans to meet McConnell on Monday to discuss a solution, the Associated Press reported.

Reid said he plans to meet with Burris on Wednesday.

Nevada’s state Republican Party chairman Sue Lowden defended Reid and slammed efforts to play the race card against him.

“You can call Harry Reid a lot of things, and I've called him my fair share,” Lowden said in a statement today.

“But 'racist' is certainly not one of them," Lowden said. “Harry may be wrong on 99 out of 100 issues politically -- including national defense, taxes, spending, health care, immigration, education and Social Security -- but to suggest that he's not comfortable around black people and wants to keep the Senate 'lily white' is absurd on its face and thoroughly offensive to all Nevadans of every political stripe.”