MSNBC star Reid dug self into hole

MSNBC’s Joy Reid is in trouble. The network’s rising star is trying to survive a controversy of her own doing that already has the Daily Beast suspending her column and threatens to do much larger damage to her career.

The trouble began when old posts from Reid’s personal blog, “The Reid Report,” came to light earlier this year in which she took unseemly shots at then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, calling him “Miss Charlie” and further suggesting that he was gay and “ogling the male waiters” on his honeymoon.

Another post read, “there are the concerns that adult gay men tend to be attracted to very young, post-pubescent types, bringing them ‘into the lifestyle’ in a way that many people consider to be immoral.”

She wrote that she couldn’t see the movie “Brokeback Mountain” and that “most straight people cringe at the sight of two men kissing.”

Reid also had thoughts about the sexuality of Anderson Cooper of CNN and a few other newsmakers.

She apologized for several posts back in December when it was first brought up, which would seem to confirm the credibility of the controversy, but she has since come to blame hackers for the homophobic language.

The progressive rising star and host of “AM Joy” was set to receive an award from a gay rights organization but that idea has been scrapped.

She is in hot water, no doubt.

It is very tempting for many on the right to take pleasure in the impending downfall of Joy Reid, and judge her by her own standards.

Reid herself has been quick to take the low road, and kick people when they’re down.

Last year, as U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) lay in the hospital after being shot by a maniac, Reid remarked, “Everybody is wishing the congressman well and hoping that he recovers, but Steve Scalise has a history that we’ve all been forced to sort of ignore on race.”

Ironically, during the same broadcast she mentioned that, “He also co-sponsored a bill to amend the Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.”

A few months ago Reid had to dial back a Tweet about conservative columnist David A. French that read, “We have truly entered the age of insanity when the conservative argument in favor of risking nuclear war is, ‘don’t worry, it will only kill Democrats and minorities.’ Shame on you @DavidAFrench.’”

In January, she took aim at Fox News host Tucker Carlson, explaining, “Tucker has been one of the most aggressive at putting forward what a lot of people have seen as a blatantly white nationalist view of what immigration should be like.”

These attacks are meant to destroy reputations in lieu of winning arguments and Joy Reid revels in that very strategy.

So, should we be cheering the end of Joy Reid in the same spirit she’s derided her political opponents and competitors?

It sure is tempting.

But why not be better than that? Why not give her the benefit of the doubt that her words were “insensitive, tone deaf and dumb” as she put it in December (before floating the crazy hacking theory).

Why not infuse a quick dose of forgiveness into 2018. She wrote some dumb and insensitive things. It’s pretty clear that she has changed her thinking. We do not have to embrace any of her current beliefs to bestow upon her the same forgiveness that we’d want if any of the “insensitive, tone deaf and dumb” things we’ve all said years ago now threatened to end our livelihoods.

Only if we embody the sacred concept of forgiveness ourselves, can we really attest to its existence.