Once again, America has descended into double standard land. Let me be clear at the top of this column: I have no sympathy for, or tolerance of, Rep. Doug Lamborn’s use of the words “tar baby” when the Colorado Republican made some comments about President Obama.
Lamborn’s exact words on a Denver talk radio show were these:
“Now, I don’t even want 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.”
Lamborn didn’t directly call Obama a tar baby, as some of his critics have alleged, but he was pretty darned close. Any heat he takes for the remark is well-deserved.
Lamborn’s “tar baby” comment has been called “racially charged.” A group of protesters that reportedly marched outside of Lamborn’s office found his “racially charged” remarks “intolerable.”
Is there a more racially charged word than the n-word? That’s exactly what Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party called Obama a while back.
You can bet those “civil rights activists,” as they were described in the media, who marched outside of Lamborn’s office uttered not one word of protest about Shabazz’s remarks.
Astute observers will counter that Lamborn is an elected official, while Shabazz is not. And this even more astute columnist will reply: that shouldn’t matter.
“Racially charged” comments are inappropriate no matter who makes them. And either Democrats or those who support them have made more than their fair share of racially charged comments.
I’ll be even more blunt: The party whose members have benefited the most from Jew-baiting, race-baiting, ofay-bashing comments made on its behalf is the Democrats. Not the Republicans, and not the so-called Tea Party.
Who’s famous for the remark, “Them Jews won’t let him talk to me?” A Republican? A Tea Partier? No, that would be one Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of a church in Chicago.
And who, for years, was a member of Wright’s church? Here’s a hint: It wasn’t Lamborn. And yeah, the guy I’m thinking about is a Democrat. Occupies the Oval Office.
Whose daddy, when asked why she lost an election to retain her congressional seat, gave reporters this answer: “Jews. J-E-W-S.” Former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s father made those remarks. McKinney ran as — oh, do I even have to remind you at this point? — a Democrat.
Who’s responsible for this gem? “I want to slap a white person for my mental health?” Don’t fret if you can’t get the right answer. This one flew completely under almost everybody’s radar. You can bet those Colorado “civil rights activists” demanding Lamborn’s resignation have never even heard of the incident.
The man who would love to “slap a white person” for his mental health is New York City Councilman Charles Barron.
He made his comments at the 2002 “Millions for Reparations Rally” — attended by dozens — held here in Washington. Yes, Barron is a Democrat.
And people wonder why the movement for slavery reparations has foundered.
Here’s one more: Who called former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele “the very essence of an Uncle Tom”? Thomas “Mike” Miller, a Democrat who’s the president of the Maryland state Senate.
Miller’s comment wasn’t as “racially charged” as that of Amiri Baraka, who, while not a Democrat, hangs out with them on the left side of the political spectrum. Baraka’s contribution to civility in political discourse was to call Steele “a real public coon.”
Ah, double standards! Don’t ya love ’em?
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
