Charlie Rangel called it "the dumbest thing she could ever have said," but members of the Democratic establishment spent this weekend defending Clinton over her "white Americans" remark from last week in an apparent effort to smooth over a flash point that could injure the party's prospects this November.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed Clinton's comment on ABC's This Week, saying, "I am confident that she meant nothing. I think it was taken wrong."

Meanwhile, Obama supporter Reverend Jesse Jackson sounded an equally conciliatory tone in a weekend interview with Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times:

"I would like to think that she was being descriptive, using the last appeal she had to justify her nomination," Jackson said when we chatted Sunday.

"I know her as a woman who is decent, worked with a lot of people across the years. I wouldn't want to suggest anything that would damage her reputation because I think she is so necessary for our future. She is very necessary for our future. She is very necessary for Barack's campaign."

It almost goes without saying that Jackson would hardly excuse similar remarks from John McCain or any other Republican as "being descriptive." Such is the nature of partisan politics, especially in a Democratic nominating contest where race has assumed a central role.