In perhaps the ultimate example of the media’s if-a-Republican-had-said-it double standard, New York Rep. and Senate hopeful Carolyn Maloney apologized today for using the n-word:
“I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting. It’s no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story exactly as it was told to me that, in doing so, I repeated a word that should never be repeated.”
The context was an attack on current NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, whom Maloney intended to malign:
There is Carolyn Maloney, ripping into Kirsten Gillibrand broad and hard for voting against the two stimulus bills and for changing her positions on several core Democratic issues, sounding out her case on the fly as, “It’s the NRA, it’s immigration, it’s all these other things. In fact, I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said [Gillibrand] went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only [education]. And he said, ‘It was like saying n-r to a Puerto Rican,'” she said, using the full racial slur. “I don’t know-I don’t know if that’s true or not. I just called. I’m just throwing that out. All of her-well, what does she stand for?”
The n-word isn’t like the four letter words that pop out of people’s mouths all day long. This is a bigger misstep than anything Gillibrand has done since her appointment, and if a Republican said the same thing in the same context it would be absolutely fatal. It’s not clear to me why Maloney should be given a free pass. And where’s Al Sharpton? Update: I foolishly assumed that just because I hadn’t seen a Sharpton statement, he hadn’t put one out:
“No public official even in quoting someone else should loosely use such an offensive term and should certainly challenge someone using the term to him or her,” Sharpton said in a press release. “If in fact this quote is accurate, Congresswoman Maloney should issue a public apology for allowing that kind of dialogue to go un-challenged by her and for repeating it. Congresswoman Maloney should reveal the person that she was talking about so we know that in fact this conversation did occur and the way in which it occurred.”
