Looks like the Democrats are having another one of their own bigot eruptions:
U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown verbally attacked a top Bush administration official during a briefing on the Haiti crisis Wednesday, calling the President’s policy on the beleaguered nation “racist” and his representatives “a bunch of white men.”
Her outburst was directed at Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Noriega, a Mexican-American, is the State Department’s top official for Latin America.
“I think it was an emotional response of her frustration with the administration,” said David Simon, a spokesman for the Jacksonville Democrat. He noted that Brown, who is black, is “very passionate about Haiti.”
Brown sat directly across the table from Noriega and yelled into a microphone. Her comments sent a hush over the hourlong meeting, which was attended by about 30 people, including several members of Congress and Bush administration officials.
Noriega later told Brown: “As a Mexican-American, I deeply resent being called a racist and branded a white man,” according to three participants.
Brown then told him “you all look alike to me,” the participants said.
As usual, I doubt the Democrats will be outraged. Remember, only Republicans can be racist.
*** Update ***
As usual, I am so jaded by the political climate that I fail to give Democrats enough credit when they deserve it. Kudos to the Calpundit and Matt Yglesias. I do take issue with one aspect of his comment denouncing Ms. Brown’s statement:
Calling our policy racist is OK
Kimmitt
WTF? I can only hope she issued an immediate and rather abject apology.
roger
shes a democrat and she’s black and she’s a she thats extra double triple good get out of jail free for ever no apology will be seen from this piece of human sewage.
Tatterdemalian
We can hope she’ll end up like Cynthia McKinney, another black female southern Congresswoman…
HH
Of course she didn’t issue an apology. And before long she’ll receive a pat on the back for crusading against bigotry.
Steverino
I want to hear Congressional Democrats calling for her censure. What Brown said is so much worse than what Rod Paige said, but I am not going to hold my breath waiting for the Democrats to call one of their own onto the carpet.
Jack Sparks (burn rate)
It won’t happen. The best we’ll get is a pro forma apology, and even that’s a longshot.
Ricky
Cuba – communist country that we want to change via asylum policies.
Haiti – not communist, but a hellhole nonetheless.
That’s all I can think of.
The Lonewacko Blog
In addition to her comments, I wonder why he resents being “branded a white man.”
Ricky
Notably missing in Matt & Drum’s reactions are anything remotely similar to what they’d have obviously said had she simply made a disgusting comment at someone’s birthday party, as opposed to outright racist comments during an official governmental gathering towards a minority government official.
They accepted Trent’s apology, right?
HH
The mainstream media were planning all-out 24/7 coverage of this story, with pundits and politicians registering their outrage… then they remembered Brown’s not a Republican.
Steve
Well Matthew’s response seemed a tad…mild. Trent Lott’s foot-in-mouth episode was just…dumb? Santoroum’s foot-in-mouth was just…dumb? Seems to me that so much more could have been said, but wasn’t. The only thing that struck me as just dumb was Matthew’s post.
Randy Paul
Anyone want to guess why we have a different policy for Haiti than we do for Cuba? And it doesn’t have anything to do with oil, either.
Electoral votes and a very well-organized immigrant lobby.
Steve
Maybe he is proud of his heritage, and by calling a white man it sort of diminishes it…I dunno, but that’d be my guess.
Has anybody seen Hesiod’s tortured logic on how this really isn’t racism since Spanards were clearly white (forget the Moors), and since Spain conquered Mexico, and some of the Mexicans who are descended from spaniards who didn’t mix with the indian population…why Noriega is practically whiter than an albino.
Okay, the last part I added on, but that’s pretty much it.
Kimmitt
There’s nothing wrong with being, say, a Malaysian woman.
But I’m not one, and it’d piss me off if someone called me one as part of a self-righteous tirade.
j snead
Note how the Dem apologists refer to her remarks as “dumb” or “stupid” — as opposed to, say, racist. Also note how many Dem apologists say things like, “Although her frustration is understandable (her remarks were dumb),” OR “Although her remarks were dumb, her frustration is understandable.” Hmmm, “that dumb old, undertandably frustrated Strom Thurmond !”
shark
Bigh deal, you give credit to a few on the left because they had sense enough to chastize her for such obvious assholery? I guess we don’t expect much from them (justifiably so I may add) but where are the calls for her to resign? Like they would if a Repub. said something similar? When the left has the guts to do that, THEN I’ll give them credit
M. Scott Eiland
Well, perhaps she should be cut a little slack. At least *her* racist outbursts didn’t contribute to any deaths, unlike those of Maxine “No Justice, No Peace!” Waters, who was also at the meeting. Corrine was probably just showing off in front of the old mistress of inappropriate and destructive racial invective.
martin
Corrine Brown is a racist who hates whites, unless they can be used to bring her name in to the lime light.
andrew r
HH-
If Ms. Brown ever becomes a cogressional leader your argument will stand. Trent Lott was one of the most visable American politicians. I follow politics, and espically Democratic politics, very closly and have never heard of Mr. Brown.
This link appeared in MY comments section today, it is about a GOP backbencher who made a far more outragous comment.
Darrell
you know if a white person had said what brown did they be out of a job.I have been watching brown for years she is a racist you can tell by the way she acts her true feelings came out
Michael
This is rediculous!! I am from Jacksonville and all too often have the DISPLEASURE of seeing this idiot of a human, show just how STUPID she is. Almost everytime she opens her mouth she confirms the fact that she reacts with STUPIDITY more than anything else. How could this woman not be on her way out the door by now. If I were to say all BLACK poeple look alike to me at my OFFICE, I would be out the door and I am NOT a politician. The truth of the matter is this piece of brainless TRASH female DEMOCRAT will more likely not get run off like she should be. Why?? Maybe because she pushes for EVERY program that encourages LAZINESS and supports mediocraty, and because of that she will continue to get the vote of the other TRASH just like her who would rather live off the system and OVER TAXATION that I- and MANY other hard working citizens- have to endure than to get up off their asses and support themselves. ANYWAYS, in MY opinion, if she fell off the face of the political earth, it would be the BEST day in the world for human kind.
Izzy
Someone said this is what happens when you eat too many bananas.
Dave
I wonder what financial intrests Ms Brown has in Haiti.
concerned
– i’m concerned about this Waters miscreant as i’m moving to Florida…
– she’s at it again today, and was censured in the House after flapping her lips with nonsense about the 2000 Presidential election, calling it a ‘coup detat’…
– even more frightening is that this person could get re-elected!
– how in the heck does someone like this get to be a Congressional representative?
– very scary, indeed…
drawn
It’s due to racial gerrymandering and the Dumbocrats are the masters.