Obama: "If I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language”

[jefferson_dem]

Attorney General Chided for Language on Race
By HELENE COOPER

WASHINGTON — President Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., for describing America as a “nation of cowards” when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Mr. Holder’s indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.

“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Mr. Obama said in a mild rebuke from America’s first black president to its first black attorney general.

In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, the president said that despite Mr. Holder’s choice of words, he had a point.

“We’re oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there’s some sort of racial flare-up or conflict,” he said, adding, “We could probably be more constructive in facing up to sort of the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination.”

Mr. Holder made his comments last month during an address to employees at the Justice Department, saying that “though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and we, I believe, continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards.”

His remarks ignited protest, particularly from conservatives. One post, by Stephan Tawney on the American Pundit blog, said that “our attorney general is black, both major parties are led by black men, the president is black.”

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08race.ht...

[firedupdem]

1. I understand the President has to be careful with this issue but I

agree with everything Eric Holder said. Notice they added he hesitated for 5 seconds before answering. They keep trying to trap him into another fake controversy but he's too smart for it.

[ulysses]

5. exactly so.

Obama can't afford to be seen as a firebrand, but Holder was right. And I think Obama knows it.

[firedupdem]

7. Yeah he does. He basically repeated everything Holder said

without using the word "cowards". They would have loved for him to say he totally agreed with it so that could fill next week's talking points.

[depakid]

8. A bit of "woodshed" was necessary and appropriate don't you think?

The worry was that Holder was starting to channel Andrew Young....

[ellisonz]

2. Right on Holder

[EffieBlack]

3. "I would have said it differently" is not "chiding"

Just saying . . .

[Cha]

4. Corporatemedia always had to manufacture

a controversary where they is none.

[rug]

6. What is he advising Holder about the Yoo lawsuit?

[Occam Bandage]

10. That is certainly something we are privy to.

[rug]

12. We are privy to their arguments in court.

Which are unchanged.

[Hellataz]

9. I liked how he handled this question. His answer was very fitting.

Obama is so masterful when walking that political tightrope.

[Mass]

11. And the mass media continue to find conflict where there is none.

Obama says he agrees with Holder, just would have used other words.