{"id":4625,"date":"2005-07-06T12:11:58","date_gmt":"2005-07-06T16:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4625.html"},"modified":"2005-07-06T12:11:58","modified_gmt":"2005-07-06T16:11:58","slug":"gov-ehrlich-says-discrimination-is-not-my-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/gov-ehrlich-says-discrimination-is-not-my-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Ehrlich says discrimination is ‘not my business’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a politician gets caught hosting an event at an all-white country club, he or she has a choice on how to respond. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) is not choosing wisely<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. addressed criticism yesterday of a fund-raiser he hosted at an all-white country club by saying its membership is “not my business,” and he complained of a “double standard” because there was no outcry when prominent Democrats held events there. […]<\/p>\n

Ehrlich, who said that he has spoken at the Elkridge Club “many, many times over the years sponsored by different groups,” said he was not concerned about who belonged to the club.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what their membership is, and guess what? It’s not my business,” Ehrlich said in the radio interview.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wrong answer. Ehrlich may have been on to something by noting that a Dem held an event at the same exclusive club, but the Dem’s response highlighted how misguided Ehrlich’s response was.<\/p>\n

“[Democratic Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr.] has never belonged to a country club in his life. He was not aware of the country club’s membership composition, and as the leader of a diverse county, he appreciates that it has been brought to his attention. Clearly he will not have future campaign events hosted at this location,” said Rachael Rice, a fund-raising consultant for the Smith campaign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right answer. If you’re using an all-white facility in the 21st century, and you didn’t know about the club’s racist policies, it can be excused as an honest mistake. You learn of the club’s problem, you express regret, and you avoid the club in the future.<\/p>\n

But Ehrlich had to take things one step further by lashing out at Dems and insisting that he’s not at all concerned about a facility in his state discriminating on the basis of race. Instead of decrying racial prejudice, Ehrlich essentially said he doesn’t care whether private clubs exclude African Americans or not.<\/p>\n

One has to wonder what this guy’s thinking.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: Kevin Drum makes an important point<\/a>. My post here was looking at this from a poltical perspective — Ehrlich screwed up and had a ridiculous defense. In the bigger, and more important, picture, the fact that there are country clubs that continue to discriminate is more than outrageous; it’s pathetic and a national embarrassment. <\/p>\n

I want politicians to stop visiting these racist facilities, but I really<\/em> want politicians to show some leadership on this issue and change discrimination laws to make club policies like these a thing of the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a politician gets caught hosting an event at an all-white country club, he or she has a choice on how to respond. Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R) is not choosing wisely. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. addressed criticism yesterday of a fund-raiser he hosted at an all-white country club by saying its membership is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}