My Personal Response to GOP Chair Dave Hansen's Comments on Helen Thomas

Helen Thomas:



OK, that was bad. But, was it bad enough to generate these comments from Utah Republican Party Chairman Dave Hansen (via today's Political Cornflakes)?

"Helen Thomas has clearly lost any semblence of rational thinking and has let her bigoted views of Israel and Jews take over. Yes Helen, its time for you to retire. You might be more comfortable living out your remaining years in a white supremacist enclave in northern Idaho."

Maybe Ms Thomas can take a few of Mr Hansen's party members with her. Namely Senator Buttars, Representatives Wimmer and Sanstrom, and Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater, too. Their comments have been just as bad, if not worse, than those of Ms Thomas.

I'm sure they'll all love it up there with those folks.

-Bob

(P.S. - I know that Senator Buttars is in the hospital with health issues. I hope he gets better soon.)

Harry Reid, Racism, and Hypocrisy

Politico:

Republican leaders on Sunday called on Harry Reid to step down as Senate majority leader, after the Nevada Democrat apologized for calling Barack Obama as a "light-skinned" African-American who lacked a "Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told POLITICO that Reid should immediately step down as majority leader.

Cornyn said Reid's comments "were embarrassing to the Senate" and warrant his removal from leadership. He noted that Reid, then minority whip, had backed the ouster of Republican Leader Trent Lott after he made racially charged comments in 2002.

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, also pointed to a "double standard" in how Democrats have treated Reid as compared with Lott.

"If he should resign, then Harry Reid should," Kyl said on "Fox News Sunday." "If they apologize and you know what is in their heart, my feeling is they shouldn't, but in this case he should."

"There is this standard where Democrats feel they can say these things and apologize as long as it comes from one of their own," said Republican National Chairman Michael Steele on the same program. "And if it comes from somebody else, it’s racism."

Sure, he apologized. However, had Rob Bishop (just throwing a name out there) said something similar, no amount of apologizing would be enough.

So, We see hypocrisy from both sides of the isle: Republicans for suddenly caring about racism, and Democrats for pretending it's OK to say something possibly racist, because if you have a track record of helping minorities......

-Bob

Senator Buttars is Republican, a dark and ugly thing

Salt Lake Tribune:

Mapleton officials say Sen. Chris Buttars repeated his infamous remark about a black baby during a meeting with them this week.
Three city officials - one was Mayor Laurel Brady who has three adopted black children - said Buttars referred at least three times to inflammatory remarks earlier this year, saying of a bill, "this baby is black . . . it's a dark and ugly thing."
The comments, they said, came during a Capitol Hill meeting Wednesday to discuss a Utah County developer's ongoing dispute with the city over a proposed Maple Mountain housing project.
That's not all Buttars said during the meeting, according to the city officials. He also expressed no regret for writing a critical letter to 4th District Judge Derek Pullan who had ruled against the Maple Mountain developer - and Buttars' friend - Wendell Gibby.
That letter prompted Senate leaders to remove Buttars as chairman of the Judicial Confirmation Committee, which makes recommendations on judge appointments.
City Administrator Robert Bradshaw said Buttars appeared to be proud of writing the missive and told the group he would send it "a hundred times over." In addition, he was looking forward to Pullan coming before the Legislature's Judicial Review Committee, said Bradshaw.

Help defeat Senator Buttars. Donate to John Rendell's Campaign, or get involved.