MSNBC on-air personality Joy Reid wrote a dozen anti-gay, homophobic blog posts between 2007-2009 according to recently uncovered archives from her personal blog.

Reid, a rabid Democratic partisan, has said many controversial things over the years about Republicans, but perhaps her lowest moment came when she criticized Rep. Steve Scalise while he was lying in a hospital bed recovering from gunshot wounds he received at a congressional baseball practice.

Reid was obsessed with former Republican-now-Democratic governor of Florida Charlie Crist, whom she identified as a closeted gay man married to a woman.

Rep. #Scalise was shot by a white man with a violent background, and saved by a black lesbian police officer, and yet... #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/Qm96T90c6Y

— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) June 17, 2017

Washington Free Beacon:

Reid joked that Crist was being encouraged to run for office "now that he's married to a girl."

"Now that he's married to a girl, Charlie Crist is being sought out for all KINDS of good stuff … [The GOP] are wooing Miss Charlie to run," she wrote.

Reid also claimed that Crist spent his honeymoon dreading physical relations with his wife.

"I can just see poor Charlie on the honeymoon, ogling the male waiters and thinking to himself, 'god, do I actually have to see her naked…?'" Reid wrote.

Reid also said that Crist married a woman to increase his chances of being Sen. John McCain's (R., Ariz.) running mate in 2008.

"When a gay politician gets married, it usually indicates that he is highly ambitious, and desires to put himself in a position to move up the power ladder," Reid said.

She used the tags "gay politicians" and "not gay politicians" sarcastically in posts about Crist as well.

Reid referred to Crist as "Miss Charlie" in 12 of her blog posts and mocked him as Will, a gay character from the television show "Will and Grace."

Reid apologized, saying the posts were "tone-deaf."  She also excuses her writings, saying they were written a decade ago.

"This note is my apology to all who are disappointed by the content of blogs I wrote a decade ago, for which my choice of words and tone have legitimately been criticized," Reid said in a statement provided to Variety. "As a writer, I pride myself on a facility with language — an economy of words or at least some wisdom in the selection. However, that clearly has not always been the case."

Reid continued that the posts were intended to call out Crist for his policy views, writing that his position on same-sex marriage "shared headlines with widely rumored reports that he was hiding his sexual orientation. Those reports were the subject of lots of scrutiny: by LGBTQ bloggers, writers and journalists, conservative blogs, a controversial documentary film called 'Outrage,' and even by the comedic writers at South Park."

"My goal, in my own ham-handed way, was to call out his hypocrisy," Reid continued. She also directly addressed Crist: "I deeply apologize to Congressman Crist, who was the target of my thoughtlessness. My critique of anti-LGBT positions he once held but has since abandoned was legitimate in my view. My means of critiquing were not."

She finished the statement by adding that she has learned how to craft better critiques in the time since. "I have also learned, through brilliant friends and allies in the LGBT activist community, how to better frame my critiques of those who challenge people's right to love who they want, marry them, and walk in the world as fully free people."

This was not an apology.  It was a litany of excuses for why she shouldn't be criticized.  The left picked up on that theme to defend her.

From The New Civil Rights Movement:

In fact, Reid's remarks, ill-chosen as they may be, appear to be not attacking gay people or the LGBT community so much as attacking an anti-gay politician she – and many others – have long believed is gay. Many in the LGBT community for decades have supported attacking politicians believed to be gay when they hold anti-LGBT views or execute an anti-LGBT agenda. ...

Over at LGBTQ Nation Alex Bollinger writes, "accusing Reid of being homophobic just because she thought Crist was gay – or even because she criticized him for being a closeted gay Republican or the GOP for wanting a heterosexual VP pick – is overwrought. Those rumors were rampant because a lot of people who knew Crist were contributing to them."

Bollinger adds, "it's not like Reid said that Crist was going to burn in hell. If anything, her overall position is that the GOP is wrong for being homophobic."

Those who know Reid are also defending her.

"I've had the pleasure to call Joy a friend for a little over 10 years," LGBTQ representative for the Broward Democratic Party Michael Emanuel Rajner told NCRM via email. "We met when she co-hosted a radio show in South Florida and reported how Fort Lauderdale's then mayor was attacking the LGBT community."

"While Joy could have expressed herself differently, it was a tough time for Florida's LGBT community as we battled against a constitutional ban against marriage. Joy understood and supported us in our struggle and over the years has reached out to learn from her friends and colleagues in the LGBT community," Rajner adds. "Joy is among one of my sheros with the courage to speak up and challenge authority and injustice."

"Ill chosen words"..."she could have expressed herself differently"..."overwrought" criticism.  Imagine if a Republican had said the same thing!

Not one word about her mocking Crist not for what he believed, but for who he was: a gay man.  They can spin it any way they want, but all of those supporting her are not even mentioning the fact that Reid used homophobic slurs as expertly as any bigoted Republican – and is getting a pass.

A Republican could have said something similar 50 years ago, and the same bunch of liberal partisans would have demanded his resignation.