Barbara Cubin pulls a Trent Lott on the House floor

I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot about this one.

Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) was engaged in a heated debate yesterday with Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) on the floor of the House yesterday over a gun control bill. Watt was urging lawmakers to support an amendment to the legislation that would prohibit drug addicts or people undergoing treatment for drug addiction from purchasing guns; Cubin was working to defeat the amendment.

Cubin said, “So does that mean that if you go into a black community, you can’t sell any guns to any black person?”

She meant to go on, but Watt interrupted her, expressing outrage at the remark and asking for it to be stricken from the record. Cubin insisted that the remarks remain in the record, and added that she “would like to apologize” to Watt “for his sensitivities.”

That’s a classic non-apology. Cubin wasn’t sorry for her offensive remark about African Americans, she was sorry about her colleague’s “sensitivities.”

I’m trying to temper my disgust for Cubin’s remark as I search for a less hateful reason for her to make such a comment. I just can’t see what else she was trying to say. The debate was over a measure to stop drug addicts from getting guns, and Cubin clearly suggested that would prevent gun dealers from selling weapons to black people, obviously implying she believes that all blacks are either drug addicts or recovering drug addicts.

Trent Lott lost his leadership post in the Senate for his remarks about Strom Thurmond and Jim Moran lost his leadership post in the Democratic caucus for suggesting that Jewish Americans were in part responsible for the war in Iraq. Yet Cubin’s remarks strike me as being at least as offensive as these two, and I would argue Cubin was being even more insulting. She, however, does not have a leadership post to give up.

Later in the afternoon, Cubin tried apologizing again. She said, “If I had been able to finish my sentence and my thought, it would have stated that I don’t believe in stereotyping anyone, anytime, ever, for anything. That’s what I believe and I believe that from the bottom of my heart.”

She doesn’t believe in stereotyping anyone? If her first apology was a non-apology, then her second was simply nonsensical. Cubin was not only demonstrating her racist beliefs, she was clearly showing the world that she’s also a moron.

It’s almost humorous to consider the Republican Party’s appeals to African Americans for political support. Particularly since Bush took office, I’ve repeatedly read that the GOP is making a concerted effort to reach out to black voters and welcome them into the Republican fold.

In light of comments like Cubin’s, it is any wonder that African Americans are a little suspicious of the GOP’s outreach? Republicans are, after all, the party of Trent Lott, Jesse Helms’ race-baiting campaigns, defense of the confederate flag, opposition to affirmative action, and even Strom Thurmond himself. It was George W. Bush speaking at Bob Jones University in the 2000 campaign, despite the school’s racist policies, and it was John Ashcroft who was nominated to be attorney general despite his ties to neo-confederate racist groups.

Cubin’s stupidity, in other words, isn’t an isolated lapse in judgment. It’s part of a disturbing pattern. If the GOP is sincere about reaching out to African American voters, it still has a long way to go.