It was only a matter of time, and sure enough a white, co-called “Christian” Republican Tea Party (GOTP) congressman has used a racial epithet to describe the President of the United States.
Doug Lamborn, U.S. Representative for Colorado, was discussing the President on 630 KHOW Capils and Silverman radio show when he said, “Even if some people say, ‘Well the Republicans should have done this or they should have done that,’ they will hold the President responsible. Now, I don’t even want to have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get it, you’re stuck, and you’re a part of the problem now and you can’t get away. I don’t want that to happen to us, but if it does or not, he’ll still get, properly so, the blame because his policies for four years will have failed the American people.”
A United States Congressman called America’s first African-American President a “tar baby”.
And of course he’s sent a letter of apology for his use of the phrase “tar baby” claiming he didn’t mean to offend anyone by his innocent use of the term; after his “apology”, the good Congressman claimed on his website that he was attempting to verbalize his opinion that the President’s economic policies “have created a quagmire for the nation and are responsible for the dismal economic conditions our country faces.” Lamborn goes on to say that he “regrets that he chose the phrase “tar baby,” rather than the word “quagmire.”
Yeah well, I’m sure he does regret it, but, you know, a U.S. Congressman should have known better, and he did. Congressman Lamborn knew perfectly well what the phrase meant when he said it. He grew up in Kansas, and he knew.
In a statement to The Denver Post, Lamborn said, “I absolutely intended no offense, and if this is at all on his radar screen, I am sure that he will not take offense and he’ll be happy to accept my apology because he is a man of character.”
Lamborn’s apology may or may not be accepted, but not everyone is willing to just look the other way. David Sirota, AM760 radio host said this in response to Lamborn’s “tar baby” remark,
“The fact that a sitting member of the United States Congress would take to the airwaves to use such a racially derogatory term to describe the first African-American president in American history is disgusting.”
Rosemary Harris Lytle, president of the Colorado Springs chapter of the NAACP, told the Colorado Springs Gazette, “The world already views [El Paso County] as ultra conservative, ultra right wing, Tea-Party-loving, gay bashing, an epicenter of hate. With two vitriolic words, our own Congressman again sealed our fate.”
Ms. Harris Lytle hit the nail on the head; a white racist Congressman used a racial slur against the President.
Lamborn is a racist, and he represents an area of Colorado with a long history of racist leanings. He knew what he was saying and to whom he was speaking. He is not deserving of his office and should be expelled from the Congress for conduct unbecoming a Congressman. This kind of racism may be appealing at Colorado Tea Party rallies, but this is not the 19th-century, and this kind of rhetoric has no place in today’s America.
The Liberty Tree 