In political message wars, 'race card' has become salvo fired by all sides

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Krissah Thompson, The Washington Post

The accusations fly back and forth, a kind of political food fight: You played the race card! No, you played the race card! The tit-for-tat has become a near daily occurrence in the political message wars.

Last week, Republicans pounced after the Democratic National Committee circulated a two-minute video of President Obama rallying his supporters for the midterm elections. "It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again," Obama said.

DNC Chairman Timothy M. Kaine went further, indicating that Democrats should guard against minority voter suppression. National Republican Congressional Committee communications director Ken Spain shot back that the Democrats' strategy was to "play the race card from the bottom of the deck."

On Tuesday, after losing the congressional Democratic primary race in Cincinnati, candidate David Krikorian complained that the "race card" had been played against him. In the final days of the campaign, Krikorian was criticized for allegedly saying of his opponent, Surya Yalamanchili, that "a guy with a name like that" could never win a general election.

Truth is, there is very little agreement about the meaning of the "race card" -- a phrase that once described an attempt to unnecessarily insert the issue of race into a debate and that now sometimes seems to describe a whole lot more.

One group that finds itself engaged in the back-and-forth attacks is the "tea party" movement. Democrats level charges of racism against the movement; tea party supporters, in turn, accuse Democrats of playing the race card.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/06/AR2010050601391.html?wprss=rss_politics