Skip to main content

Barbour defends comments on race, but is the damage done to his potential 2012 bid?

Could Haley Barbour's comments on race doom his potential 2012 GOP presidential run before it even starts?

On Tuesday, the Mississippi governor sought to clarify his remarks to the Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson about growing up at the height of the civil rights movement in Mississippi.
"I just don't remember it as being that bad," Barbour had told Ferguson, noting that his hometown, Yazoo City, Miss., wasn't at the flash point of racial tensions at the time.
The governor went on to credit the Citizens Council, a group that has been viewed as pro-segregationist, for helping to integrate his hometown more peacefully than other cities in the Deep South were integrated.
[See also: Steele under fire for calling RNC member 'an idiot']
After a public outcry, Barbour clarified his remarks Tuesday, insisting he wasn't endorsing the group's views generally. "My point was my town rejected the Ku Klux Klan, but nobody should construe that to mean I think the town leadership were saints, either," Barbour said in a statement. "Their vehicle, called the 'Citizens Council,' is totally indefensible, as is segregation."
But that's not likely to quiet Barbour's critics. On Monday, Democrats seized on the governor's comments, as well as his recollection of attending a Martin Luther King Jr. rally when he was a teenager. Barbour admitted that he spent more time "watching the girls" than listening to the civil rights icon.
"He's not ready for prime time or not ready for the 21st century - either way it's disqualifying," Democratic National Committee spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a message on Twitter.
To make matters worse, Politico's Ben Smith dug up a quote from a Barbour profile in the New York Times from 1982 in which Barbour warned an aide about making racist remarks with a questionable statement of his own. According to the Times, Barbour "warned that if the aide persisted in racist remarks, he would be reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks."
[See also: In final Senate speech, Specter slams political 'cannibalism']
In an item Tuesday, the National Review's Jim Geraghty argues that Barbour's remarks to the Weekly Standard might not by themselves make him "unelectable" but that a pattern of insensitive comments along with the idea that he was "oblivious" to the suffering of others might.
"A pattern of remarks is a different matter than one off-the-cuff anecdote that suggests a man remembers the elders of his youth through rose-colored glasses," Geraghty writes. "Watermelon jokes are appalling. Perhaps in that time and place the comment was common, but to modern ears, across the country today, it's an unthinkably obnoxious and racially provocative remark."
(Photo of Barbour: Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
Other popular stories on Yahoo!
Video: Lingerie football game concludes with a brawl
Divided FCC adopts rules to protect Web traffic
Lindsay Lohan accused of attacking Rehab staffer

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Payroll tax cut worries Social Security advocates

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's plan to cut payroll taxes for a year would provide big savings for many workers, but makes Social Security advocates nervous that it could jeopardize the retirement program's finances. The plan is part of a package of tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits that Obama negotiated with Senate Republican leaders. It would cut workers' share of Social Security taxes by nearly one-third for 2011. Workers making $50,000 in wages would get a $1,000 tax cut; those making $100,000 would get a $2,000 tax cut. The government would borrow about $112 billion to make Social Security whole. Advocates and some lawmakers worry that relying on borrowed money to fund Social Security could eventually force it to compete with other federal programs for scarce dollars, leading to cuts. Social Security taxes "ought to be held sacrosanct," said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., chairman of the House Ways and Means subco...

New Dishes for this Week

MONDAY Stroganoff-Style Beef with Broccoli TUESDAY Chicken Alfredo and Rice Casserole WEDNESDAY Slow-Cooker Flemish Beef Stew THURSDAY Vegetarian Chili FRIDAY Slow-Cooked Chicken with Sourdough-Mushroom Stuffing SATURDAY Easy Marinated Pork Tenderloin SUNDAY Lamb Chops with Red Onion, Grape Tomatoes, and Feta (...AND sign up for Yahoo! Shine's weekly recipe newsletter) MONDAY Stroganoff-Style Beef with Broccoli Provided by Better Homes and Gardens For more stroganoff recipes, try these delicious dishes. Here is a dinner idea that can be ready in 30 minutes. If you are a fan of beef and broccoli, this is a recipe you must try. Serve it on top of cooked wide noodles and enjoy. Share this recipe with friends who also have busy schedules and are looking for a quick and delicious main dish...

Blake Griffin with his head at the rim

After knocking himself out of the 2009-10 season after hurting his knee during a dunk attempt, it's still OK to cringe a bit every time you see Blake Griffin (notes) readying a launch. And apparently, now we have to worry about his head knocking the rim just as much as his knees handling the descent. It speaks to the level of credibility that the Dunk Contest owns these days that when word hit Wednesday that Blake Griffin was open to the idea of entering the NBA's annual stuffing show, we were actually more concerned than excited. Would Griffin, clearly the master of the in-game dunk just two months into his NBA career, be able to in any way match his prowess in an exhibition setting? Was there a risk of him needlessly hurting himself in the process? About 11 minutes into Wednesday's Rockets/Clippers matchup, the worries became outright fears. Because Blake went and did this. That's a 6-9 guy jumping off a surgically repaired kneecap with his head at th...