About two weeks ago, Harry Reid was interviewed for a Hispanic-oriented political show called Mariowire. The interviewer asks Reid for his opinion of Marco Rubio whom, he notes, talks like a member of the GOP despite the fact that he is “Latino.” Listen to Reid’s response:

Given all the race-baiting that the left is flinging around these days, I want to be careful not to overstate what’s in this clip. I also don’t want to understate it. It sounds to me as if Reid is saying that–by aligning himself with the Tea Party or taking a certain position on the debt ceiling–Marco Rubio has lost touch with his authentic self.

Perhaps there’s another way to parse this, but given the context of the interview, race is the obvious subtext. Also, one has to consider Reid’s history of making precisely this sort of race-based political declaration about Hispanic conservatives. Remember this gem from last October?

And as it happens, guess who was there to correct him:

Harry Reid seems to have trouble wrapping his head around the concept that someone can be authentically Hispanic and Republican. As you can see in the clip above, Sen. Rubio believes his views are perfectly consistent with his genuine experience growing up in America.