The Republicans’ race problems continue

August 23, 2006

About a year ago, when Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said his party was finally ready to turn over a new leaf when it came to racial issues. Sure, Mehlman said, the GOP’s record in the 20th century left something to be desired, but that’s the past, and the party is ready to look forward with a progressive attitude.

Unfortunately, reality keeps getting in the way.

Last week, it was Sen. [tag]George Allen[/tag]’s (R-Va.) now-infamous racial slur. This week, it’s Sen. [tag]Conrad Burns[/tag] (R-Mont.).

A new video released this week by [Burns’] Democratic challenger, Jon Tester, shows Burns, 71, joking to a crowd in June about how a “nice little [tag]Guatemalan[/tag] man” fixing up his house might be an illegal [tag]immigrant[/tag]. “Could I see your green card?” Burns tells the crowd he asked the man. “And Hugo, says, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Oh, gosh.’ ” […]

Jason Klindt, a spokesman for Burns, said he did not want to respond to the immigrant remarks, other than to say they were accurate and not mean-spirited.

My favorite part of the response was that Burns’ comments were “accurate.” In other words, as long as “Hugo” actually is “nice,” “little,” “Guatemalan,” and possibly an undocumented immigrant, there’s no problem here.

Like Allen, there’s a track record to consider. Allen didn’t get the benefit of the doubt after the “[tag]macaca[/tag]” slur because he has a troubled background on race relations. Burns, meanwhile, is on record calling Arabs “ragheads” in a speech about high oil prices.

In the broader context, it seems as if the right just can’t help itself lately.

In addition to Allen and Burns,

* a leading congressional candidate in Florida said he knows, “from my own experience, that blacks are not the greatest swimmers, and may not even know how to swim”;

* two congressional candidates and a gubernatorial candidate believe people who “appear” to be Arab or Muslim should be subjected to racial profiling at airports;

* and Pat Buchanan’s new book argues for “an immediate moratorium on all immigration,” in order to preserve the dominance of the white race in America.

And these are just examples from the last eight days. If we expand the timeline to include the last few years, the embarrassing examples — remember Trent Lott praising a segregationist presidential platform? — really begin to pile up.

A year ago, Mehlman said the party’s problems with [tag]race[/tag] are a thing of the past. Given what we’ve seen lately, it sound like the problems remain a very big part of the GOP’s present.

I thought that in politics hiring an undocumented worker was a death blow. It certainly was in the 1990s.

  • The Republicans, aka Southern White Democrats, have a history of rascism. They still can’t totally hide it. Although I guess Burn’s statement might be ameliorated a little bit if he is very tall and the gardener were very short, but not much. It’s like calling someone “boy”.

  • I’m with NAR–an admission to hiring an undocumented worker by a sitting US Senator? If that alone doesn’t merit problems for Burns, Tester should run some ads about Burns’ hypocrisy–apparently he feels it is OK to hire illegals himself but then will make fighting illegal immigration part of his political plank.

  • Seriously, the racial angle is disturbing, but if Burns hired an undocumented worker and shrugged over the green card, that’s a Big Deal. Not for the legal issues, which are fairly minor, but politically — I can’t imagine Burns’ right-wing supporters being too thrilled that he’s enabling the immigration problem.

  • Maybe we could just “document” Republicans as being lower on the scale of life-forms. To borrow from the animated film “Shark Tales:”

    …There’s whale poo…rocks…and then there’s the GOP!

    Along the lines of NAR’s post, I’d be tempted to ask every supporter of Herr Burns just how he managed to get an “illegal” Guatemalan that far north of the southern U.S. border. It speaks volumes about the Republican promise to “protect Americans.” I mean sure—this was a “nice little Guatemalan man” (Burns’ own words—yes?), but a dirty bomb, a gas-canister, or a bio-weapon cartridge can be a lot smaller than a human being—even a “nice little Guatemalan” human being.

    Yeah—I know—it sounds really crass. But this is a good example whereby “the enemy” can be successfully defeated with its own weaponry….

  • NAR / Bubba,

    That only applies to housekeepers/nannies.
    Gardeners/laborers get a pass.

    I don’t know why, but my guess would be if you have an undocumented worker doing something a white person would do, it is a no-no. But what white guy is going to mow lawns and shingle a roof in 100+ temps, so no worries.

    Plus there are tax implications of having a full time employee vs. an occasional employee.

    I live in Houston and the last white gardener in the state died 20 years ago at the age of 93.

  • The “nice little Guatemalan man” is actually a US citizen.

    Asking anyone for a green card is about as insulting and racially motivated as you can get. “Pardon me Hispanic non-English speaking person, please show me proof that you are a citizen.” It’s profiling at it’s worst.

    Does Burns actually realize that there were Hispanics in Texas before it became Texas, and that just maybe they don’t feel like learning English because their language was here as well as the ancestors before Daniel Boone was even born.

  • It’s okay to ask for a green card as long as you ask the blue-eyed blond worker for one too. He could be an illegal Canadian immigrant.

  • Mel Gibson wouldn’t be in such a tight spot if he hadn’t already been suspected of anti-semitism, for another example.

    These people simply cannot help themselves. Bigotry lingers so close to the surface that they literally have to stand guard to keep it from emerging. The beast is too strong, though, and breaks out in off-the-cuff or drunken remarks. With omnipresent video and cell cams, YouTube and blogs, a slip in almost any setting can whip into a firestorm, and next thing you know the polls say you’ve lost thirty points. Tut, tut. Must suck to have to hold all that hatred in check all the time, afraid of what may come out of your own mouth.

  • “from my own experience, that blacks are not the greatest swimmers, and may not even know how to swim”

    So, I wonder what he’d make of the champion swimmer on my high school swimming team, when we were State champions? Arthur was the best of any of us in any stroke, and I recall he won by 2/3 of an olympic-size pool length in the individual medly relay, doing the butterfly (the hardest one). Did I mention he was “one of them”????

    And then of course there are those several black SEALs I’ve known – I seem to recall there’s a big swimming requirement to make that team, too.

    The modern Republican Party, not the party my abolitionist great-great-great grandfather helped form in Pennsylvania in 1854. He would definitely be spinning in his grave fast enough to generate heat, to know his party was taken over by the Confederate traitors he was so opposed to.

  • “He would definitely be spinning in his grave fast enough to generate heat, to know his party was taken over by the Confederate traitors he was so opposed to.” – Tom Cleaver

    The secret Republican’t program to replace coal fired electric plants. They are going to wind your great-great-great grandfather with copper and put him in a turbine to generate electricity. During potential brownouts they’ll spout excessively racist comments to get him spinning faster.

    (Tom, Sorry if that seems really disrepectful. We all thank God for people like your anscestor)

  • Tom, FYI individual or team medley is 50 meters of each stroke (in order, butterfly, breast, back, and crawl) and an Olympic pool is 25 meters long. High school migh only be 25 meters of each.

    Plus didn’t that black Naval diver (portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr) just recently die. That’s old school swimming, and had very limited use of his legs because of a diving accident.

    The reason these comments keep coming out is because this is how these guys talk If you call women bitches all day long with your boys, sooner or later you are going to through down the bitch word when you shouldn’t.

    I would imagine anyone close to Allen has heard Macaca a time or twenty.

  • Allen and his macaca-ed foot in the mouth… A few days ago, someone calling himself “Fightin’ Felix” posted the URL for his blog on the subject here. I thought, at the time, that it was hysterically funny but now discover that he’s been adding to it, and the site is even better than before. Well worth repeat visits (and don’t forget to read the comments ):
    http://georgefelixallen.blogspot.com/

    I sure as sure wish he were in charge of the Webb campaign; the Webb website is as dull as could be…

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