He thought he was praising Obama with his "light-skinned, no Negro dialect" remarks, so it's all OK.

At least it's all OK with Barack Obama who has issued Reid racial absolution.

The Weekly Standard points out that when Trent Lott praised former segregationist Strom Thurmond as someone who would have made an excellent president, Barack Obama himself urged Republicans to punish him for his racial insensitivity.

Embattled GOP chairman Michael Steele, an African American himself, pointed out the political double standard.

"There is this standard where Democrats feel that they can say these things and they can apologize when it comes from the mouths of their own. But if it comes from anyone else, it is racism," Steele told "Fox News Sunday."

"If (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell had said those very words that this chairman (Democrat Tim Kaine) and this president would be calling for his head, and they would be labeling every Republican in the country as a racist for saying exactly what this chairman has just said," Steele continued.

Truer words were never spoken.