Here's the fine, upstanding, not-at-all-a-rube senator who likes the word "ragheads"

[marmar]

from HuffPost:


....(snip)....

The latest chapter in the ongoing crapfest that is the South Carolina political scene occurred on a local South Carolina radio show last night, when State Senator Jake Knotts (R-S.C.) -- referring to gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley -- said, "We already got one raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the governor's mansion."

Need it be said that Knotts does not support Haley -- who was raised a Sikh -- or her bid for the state house? Well, there you have it, in the most bigoted terms Knotts can muster. Of course, after the fact, Knotts invoked a very novel justification for his remark: the "Saturday Night Live defense":

"Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It's like local political version of Saturday Night Live, which is actually where the joke came from," said Knotts.

I'm prepared to be proven wrong about this -- so consider this something to which I'll be happy to return -- but if this joke came from the Saturday Night Live I've been watching my entire life, I sure cannot find it. As near as I can tell, the word "raghead" was used precisely twice on SNL. In Season One, Candace Bergen played a reporter interviewing "the king of a peaceful Middle Eastern country," who Bergen went on to "insult and torment," using, at one point, "raghead" as a slur. In Season Fifteen, Bruce Willis plays a passenger of a hijacked commercial flight who won't stop telling terrible jokes even after the terrorists on-board tell him that doing so will cost his fellow passengers their lives. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/04/jake-knotts-slur-spewing_n_600672.html

[Mimosa]

1. But..but...she's a REPUBLICAN!

Don't republicans deserve being called names just by virtue of being republicans? They're all bad anyway, and it doesn't matter what they get called. I learned that on the threads about Bobby Jindal, who is also Asian American and has a funny name, Piyush.

[atreides1]

3. But her skin color isn't white

Maybe this will begin to show some people of color who call themselves Republicans, that the tent isn't really that big after all.

But, the real hardcore believers, like Steele, Keyes, and Larry Elder, will be out apologizing and insisting that it was taken out of context, or just a joke.

[polichick]

2. South Carolina voters have a lot of work to do - seems like they choose...

...one asshole after another - where in the hell do they find these guys?!

[blindpig]

4. The Chamber of Commerce. n/t

[polichick]

6. No doubt! I have a feeling the CofC has no shortage of assholes...

...anywhere in the country.

[tularetom]

5. I guarantee you that "raghead" is not "the most bigoted terms Knotts can muster"

I think he's quite capable of mustering a lot more bigoted terms than that.