The Republicans say Harry “Anything you say, Mr. Republican” Reid should resign his post as senate majority leader because he noted that Barack Obama could actually be elected president since he is “fair-skinned” and doesn’t speak with a “Negro dialect.” They point out that their own majority leader a few years ago was forced to resign that post for his own racially insensitive remarks.

My dutiful colleagues, of course, are all over this “story” like barbecue sauce on pork ribs because, we all know, when the Republicans say something, it must be treated as legitimate, even if it’s completely ridiculous. Because that’s how they roll.

And that’s how the American people get snowed into believing incredibly stupid things. Everytime we create a “controversy” about something that really just needs to be called out for the bullshit it is, we legitimize the bullshit.

The Republicans know this. That’s why they keep doing it.

Here’s another one. The Republicans are now saying that the Bush administration “inherited” 9/11. That way they can keep saying that there were no terrorist attacks on the United States during those eight years. I suppose they must think Bush “inherited” the shoe bomber too, but, funny thing, they don’t seem very inclined to say that the Obama administration “inherited” the underpants bomber.

I’d say that’s because it’s bullshit.

Pretty soon they’ll be saying that Bush inherited the economic mess, which is actually true in a way. While he did squander a budget surplus, the seeds of the economic disaster we’re experiencing were planted by Ronald Reagan. Maybe they won’t say that after all.

But they did it last month with the underpants bomber. Liz Cheney whines that Obama took 100 hours to say something about that. How many hours is six days, because that’s how long it took Bush to say something about the shoe bomber?

And again, my colleagues are helping them out. Those same colleagues who took the GOP talking point about Obama’s vacation and how long it took never once asked Bush about the shoe bomber when he finally did come out and talk. Unprompted, Bush threw out a comment about how well the system worked since Richard Reid didn’t actually blow up anything. But Obama? He failed. Just ask Michael Steele. And Dick Cheney.

Fortunately, that tactic doesn’t appear to be working all that well on the underpants bomber front. A new poll says about 60 percent of Americans think Obama’s handled it pretty well. I’m sure that’s just eating their little hearts out.

But it worked very well on health care, which is why we’re getting such a crappy bill. Well, that and the Democrats complete inability to do anything but roll over and play dead.

And that, my friends, is why Harry Reid should resign as senate majority leader. He’s a failure, but not because he said Obama’s skin color and speaking style would help him win the presidency.

That, unfortunately, is true. My colleagues are having a hard time talking about that part. We don’t like to talk about racism in this country. We like to ignore it and hope it’ll go away. But like the elephant in the living room, it’s gonna stay right there on sofa squishing the daylights outta the cushions.

To be fair, I did hear some decent discussion of just that subject, and it surprised me. CNN’s Kyra Phillips hosted a very good discussion that didn’t include a single Republican. Because it was lacking that element, the back and forth was about why Harry would say that, the truth behind it and racism in both the black and white community.

But it was lacking one thing. Reid’s “fair-skinned” comment was pure and simple about racism. But the “Negro dialect” comment was about class. As hard a discussion as race is for us to have, we often have an even harder time addressing the very real issues we have around economic class — and honestly, that’s at the very center of the Republican black heart.

While I don’t expect us to start talking about class anytime soon, I’m encouraged by some of what I heard today on the cablers … not Faux News, of course, but others. And it’s yet another opportunity for our first black president  to step up and lead.

So far, he’s been reluctant to talk about race, doing the bare minimum he can do. I don’t blame him. He ran to be president, not black president. But he is a black president, our first. And it’s a prime chance to seize Teddy Roosevelt’s bully pulpit and teach us a little about racism. What he says and does in these situations can spell the difference between limping along with the same-old-same-old and taking a bold step forward — leaving the real racists behind in our dust.

It’s way past time for that. The Republicans own the airtime because they jump up and start spewing nonsense every chance they get. It’s time for Democrats, liberals and progressives — with Barack Obama in the lead — to take that away. Start talking truth, real truth. Don’t let my colleagues get away with the easy he said/she said banter.

The Republicans want us to think that what Harry Reid said is akin to what Trent Lott said.

Seems to me, though, that saying a bonafide, died-in-the-wool racist like Strom Thurmond woulda made this a better country if he’d been president is far afield from speaking the obvious truth.

And that’s where the conversation can begin.