Bush on visiting a prison ministry program: ‘Everyone was black, of course.’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/23/bush-ministry-prison-black/

Bush on visiting a prison ministry program: ‘Everyone was black, of course.’




In his new book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, former Bush administration Matt Latimer describes a 2008 California GOP fundraiser he attended while working in the White House, where the President gave a speech to donors about his personal struggles with alcoholism. Bush then went on to make racially charged comments about his visit to a prison ministry program (p. 177):

He talked about his own failings with alcoholism as the reason he supported his faith-based initiative. “My philosophy is, find somebody who hurts and do something about it,” he said. “Don’t wait for government to tell you what to do.” He bluntly talked about his own situation. “I was beginning to love alcohol over my wife and kids. It got to a point when Billy Graham came into my life. But I was hardheaded and didn’t want to listen for a while. And then I stopped drinking overnight. I am a one-man faith-based initiative. Alcohol was competing for my affections. And it would have ruined me.”

He said things that could ruffle feathers, such as how he’d recently gone to a faith-based program run by “former drunks.” He said he went to see a prison ministry program, noting that ‘everyone was black, of course.” All eyes turned in search of the sole African American in the audience of donors. They wanted to see if he was offended.

Latimer adds that that the African-American man didn’t “appear to be” offended, and he defends Bush by saying that he “didn’t mean it in a derogatory way. He just liked making blunt observations to shock his audience.”

[AspenRose]

1. Karla Fay Tucker wasn't black, you imbecile.

I loathe this man.

[scheming daemons]

2. "Everyone was black" can be a non-racist observation.. the "of course" at the end makes it racist

...

[havocmom]

3. Yep. Let's try him for his crimes. If found guilty, he can be the 'token white' in prison

of course.

That imbecile is clearly a waste of skin & oxygen.

[noiretextatique]

4. you're not black, and you're a drunk, a cokehead, a chickenhawk, a liar, a failure

and a war criminal, of course.

[BOSSHOG]

6. Don't forget he also was a military deserter

"chickenhawk" in the worse sense since he got daddy to get him into a non-combat champagne unit during Vietnam so he could strut around in a uniform, but not making O-3 is just plain pathetic.

[noiretextatique]

14. thanks for adding that...forgot he was AWOL too eom

[HughBeaumont]

5. Scratch a Republican . . .

[FiveGoodMen]

7. You got that right!

[UTUSN]

8. K&R #7. Rec it into the HUNDREDS so that everybody will see the GOON JERK he is!1 n/t

[charlie]

9. And the speaker was a coke-addled pinhead

I don't mean that "in a derogatory way", I just like "making blunt observations to shock" former preznits.

You're a tool, Latimer. A gutless lackey for the rich and stupid.

[damntexdem]

10. Well, then, what makes all those white convicts so irreligious?

And catch the look on the face of the young woman Dubya is harassing. Hey, don't feel so bad -- he also did that to foreign leaders. ;-)

[NOLALady]

12. She's a kid.

He was visiting a school.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

13. and he's being overly chummy. And the kid KNOWS it

her disgust is obvious. GREAT pic

[noiretextatique]

15. she clearly doesn't like him

she looks like she'd rather be any place else on the planet :rofl:

[lpbk2713]

11. I immediately thought of his mother upon reading that subject line.

Sounds exactly like something Babs would say.