Texas Gov. Rick Perry who only weeks ago was portrayed as the second coming of Ronald Reagan, if not Jesus Christ himself, has stepped into a deep pit of racial resentment that has the potential to derail his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
The Washington Post revealed in its Sunday edition that the name of the Perry family's hunting camp in a remote area of Texas is called N*****rhead, and has been for decades. The word was (is) written on a three foot by five foot rock in large block letters that were visible to anyone entering the camp - which over the years, according to the Post, included many members of the Texas political and financial establishment.
While the GOP establishment is attempting to close ranks behind Perry - in itself an unfortunate action - they also are pushing even harder for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to enter the race for the GOP nomination. Christie's backers apparently are acknowledging on one hand that they need another Messiah - or lackey, take your pick - even as they are attempting damage control for Perry.
I hope for our country, our party and Christie's health he stays home in New Jersey and gets some experience as governor.
The only dispute the Perry campaign has for the Post story thus far is the claim that the Perry family painted over the racial slur decades ago, while the Post says the word was visible as recently as last summer - and certainly for many of the years that Perry has been Governor and before that the Agriculture Commissioner.
Many in the GOP establishment are dismissive of the issue, including or perhaps especially Rush Limbaugh who reported Monday that the rock was painted and turned over literally as soon as the Perry family began using the camp in the 1970s - not the 1980s or 1990s as the Post reported. Limbaugh said the Post story is an insult to voters' intelligence.
But the Post reported that the stone was laid flat, not turned over, and that didn't happen until years after the Perry family began using the camp. The word was thus face up, still very visible and unpainted for years, the Post said, and even recent attempts to paint over it appeared half-hearted and the letters still were visible.
Frankly I don't give a damn about the Post version versus the Perry version versus the Limbaugh version. Even if the Post did use unnamed sources which is not uncommon for investigative stories, they all said the same thing. (When I was an investigative reporter and editor I was required to have at least three sources who could independently attest to the same information, and they had to be known to me and available to my editor if we were challenged.)
The Perry family's camp was named N*****head, as is the area where it is located and no real effort was made to hide that fact until Perry began to rise in political prominence. My issue here is why was the stone just laid down and/or painted over?
Why wasn't it broken up and trucked out of the area decades ago? Why is it still there? As a reminder of .... what?
Perry can talk himself blue in the face over this but he has a bad public relations problem and the longer it goes on the worse it gets. Yes I know that the entire liberal establishment allowed Barack Hussein Obama to get away with racial and religious slurs throughout his campaign, and that his former minister is a rabid anti-white, anti-Christian firebrand who enriched himself over his racial hatred.
But the liberal establishment has been getting away with this for decades and everyone knows it, even the liberals. Limbaugh also jumped on the bash-Herman-Cain- bandwagon Monday - Cain being the black GOP businessman who overtook Perry and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the recent straw poll of Florida GOP delegates and leaped upward in national polls to the top three candidates.
Cain was asked about the Perry family slur on FOX News Sunday and responded that it was insensitive. Limbaugh had himself in a fit over that Monday but frankly, what was Cain supposed to say? Do you think for an instant that if Perry or Romney or any of the other GOP presidential aspirants had information that Cain had used a racist slur that they wouldn't use it to derail his campaign?
Seriously, if you think this is about Cain, you may be right but for the wrong reasons. Cain's response to the Perry debacle was measured and reasonable, regardless of what Limbaugh thinks.
Voters have a right to know as much as possible about the people who want to lead - or in Obama's case, dictate to - this country. If it is revealed that a formerly pretty candidate turns out to have had a major makeover that didn't take, well it's a lot better to find out now than after he is elected.
Limbaugh's attack on Cain, aside from being a blatant diversion for Perry, was just one of many that have erupted since voters started realizing in growing numbers that they like Cain and they like his 9-9-9 tax overhaul plan.
(On FOX News this morning an economist said that Cain's 9 percent national sales tax proposal will hurt the poor! Seriously, this came out on Fox. Where was this guy when the government was deducting 25 dollars for every $100 I made for years not counting all the other taxes I pay?)
Cain also wants to reduce corporate taxes from 35 percent to 9 percent, and the federal income tax from its current minimum of 15 percent to a flat 9 percent. He says his tax plan levels the playing field for everyone, but I also think he should push the fact that his plan provides for discretionary spending at the individual level.
The economist I referred to above said that if a rich guy buys a $1 donut and pays 9 cents in tax, it impacts him less than a poor guy who buys a $1 donut and pays the same 9 cents.
Really? How?
If a poor guy doesn't have a buck to buy a lousy donut then don't buy the lousy donut. Work an extra 15 minutes at your minimum wage job, and then you can afford two donuts.
I have a different explanation of this. How about if a rich guy buys a new $100,000 car and pays $9,000 in taxes, while under Cain's plan a poor guy buys a $3,000 used car and pays nothing in sales taxes? They are taxed the same rate for new goods that they either need or can afford and I don't see a damn thing wrong with that; but used goods aren't taxed.
This is a consumption tax and it gives each of us the same right to buy or not to buy at our own discretion. There are reasons why some people shop at Bloomingdale's and others at WalMart and the first of those reasons is price. As long as the poor have access to affordable food, clothing, warmth and housing I don't see how Cain's plan hurts them more than the rich.
Actually, Cain's plan really does ensure that everyone pays their "fair share!" If you want more expensive stuff, get educated, work your way up in your chosen profession, be prudent, save and buy when you can afford it.
Regarding Gov. Christie, I have been listening to Limbaugh go on for several days now that Christie is not a real conservative. So why put him out there as another GOP loser to be bashed to smithereens by the media - who actually might wait until next year to do it if he gets the nomination? Then they can destroy him when he is running against Obama.
If Christie is less conservative than James Carville, how is that going to make the GOP field of potential nominees better? Right. It won't. So let's put that to rest before it gets started and the vicious liberal media exposes our embarrassing kowtowing to GOP power brokers in DC and Manhattan who want to maintain the status quo.
Frankly, I think the GOP establishment is scared to death of Cain because he has a plan and the expertise to employ it. Even if Michael Barone thinks he is a token candidate - a position he espoused on FOX Business last week and repeated in his Newsmax column today. (I'll be unsubscribing from Newsmax as soon as I post this.)
Yeah, Cain has some people shaking in their boots. Imagine that; A black Republican who knows what to do, a history of success in the business world, how to get this country back on track, and as a former president of a regional branch of the Federal Bank, probably knows where the skeletons are buried.
I think that really has some people worried. And that's a good thing.
Monday, October 03, 2011
2 comments:
I don’t get it; if the N –word is a racial slur, offensive to blacks, why are so many blacks using it freely, without criticism, from within or without? Is it only a racial slur when non-blacks use it, or only when white people use it? Are certain words appropriate for some people and not for others? In determining one word to be more offensive than another word; what is the measure? The worn-out “race card” has taken on many forms and has been used and reused ad nauseum by blacks and liberal whites against white people.
I think it’s time we put racism to rest; Obama got 96% of the black vote and many white votes; the blacks who voted for him likely did so because he was black; are they racist?
The Black Panthers who were intimidating white voters at the polls saying; “Kill the cracker (white) babies,” somehow that did not stir up a fraction of the media’s indignation as the title of this stone; why is that? Why the double standard?
I agree, within certain segments of the black community there is a double standard - especially among Democrats. But not everyone agrees with it - and not everyone in the black community uses the "N-word" when talking with other black people.
Yes, the media did all it could to downplay the black panther voter intimidation, as well as Holder dropping the case. That doesn't make it right, just another example of the uselessness of the mainstream media as an information outlet.
And that still doesn't mean that gutter language belongs at the highest levels of debate in the GOP race for the presidency. We are supposed to be the party of morals and manners.
Street smarts are helpful in a political race, street language belongs on the streets.
And Herman Cain didn't create the issue, nor go out of his way to exploit it. He was asked a question that he was uniquely qualified to answer in this envirnoment and did so honestly with restraint.
The name of Rick Perry and his family's hunting camp should never have been an issue in the first place. It was sloppy to leave that name intact when he started his first run for governor more than a decade ago and is just one more reason to question his viability as a candidate.