ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. David Paterson says that while Sen. Harry Reid’s racial remarks about President Barack Obama are reprehensible and degrading, the U.S. Senate majority leader shouldn’t lose his post.

Paterson, who is black, says he feels that Democrats and Republicans who make a sincere apology shouldn’t see their careers ruined over what he called ill-chosen remarks.

Reid is quoted by journalists in a new book as saying he was impressed by the nation’s first black president whom Reid described as “light-skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

Paterson says he finds it disturbing the remarks made it into print without someone recognizing them as offensive.

Republicans claim Democrats are exhibiting a double standard by excusing Reid.