Jake Knotts Is A Big Fat Racist

"We've already got a raghead in the White House we don't need a raghead in the governor's mansion." - Senator Jake Knotts of South Carolina.

I'm so proud.

This was Knotts talking about gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley and the fact that her parents were born in India and she was raised in the Sikh traditions.

Raghead.

Makes her unfit to be governor because we all know how them ragheads work.

Not so fast, Jake. Lexington County Republicans have voted to rebuke Jake Knotts and ask him to resign his office after he used that racial slur, but Knotts said he would not resign, and said the resolution was pushed by supporters of Haley and Governor Mark Sanford, Knotts’ longtime adversary.

Or, maybe it was pushed by people who are sick to death of racism.

Knotts said: “This is not a Republican Party, this is a libertarian party. This is nothing but politics. I’m not resigning. I could care less.” Knotts then said he has apologized for the comment, which was intended as a joke, and did not plan to do so again.

Am I the only one who doesn't find the humor?

Jake Knotts should be ashamed of himself. He shouldn't have to be censured, he should have resigned within minutes of his racist remarks leaving his mouth.And those members of the Republican party who stand by Knotts and call his words an unfortunate mistake should resign, too.

There is no place for racism, least of all by an elected official who is supposed to represent all the people.

The Stench Of South Carolina Politics

Politics in Florida, in general, and Miami, in particular, were odd, to say the least. I moved to Miami just before the Bush-Gore-Hanging-Chad kerfuffle in 2000, but, luckily, I had voted absentee in California so I didn't hang my head in the days following the election,

And local Miami politics wasn't any better. I can't even count the number of politicians who went to jail, for everything from bribery charges, to allegations of spousal abuse, only to come out of prison, run for office again, and win.

I had hoped South Carolina would be different, and it is, but not in a good way.

South Carolina politics is mean and racist and, let's not forget, Christian--although how those three work in tandem I have yet to figure out.

Apparently, back in 2000, when John McCain was running against Bush in the presidential primary, rumors swirled that he fathered an illegitimate black child; and you just know that didn't go over too well with our Christian and racist voters. Then there is the story from 1990, when political consultant Rod Shealy, hoping to increase the turnout among anti-black white voters in the GOP primary, recruited a black candidate--which he correctly assumed would help his own candidate--to run for Congress. And of course we had Mark "Appalachian Trail Hiking" Sanford, who called himself a fiscal conservative family values man while flying first class to Argentina to see his mistress. Finally, I give you Joe "You lie" Wilson, who showed most of the country, the rational thinking part of the country, just how ridiculous our politicians are here in South Carolina.

We're so proud.

But now we have another asshat, running for governor, amid rumors of infidelity, and, well, this is a stretch, her ties to the Middle East; and we all know that's a bad thing.

Republican front-runner Nikki Haley is yet another pro-family, pro-life, pro-gun candidate who has the dubious backing of The Double Wingnuts, the Tea party and Sarah Palin. But she has been dogged by rumors of not one, but two adulterous affairs, both lodged by conservative political operatives who claim to have slept with her. And, as if that wasn't bad enough--we don't need another cheater in the governor's mansion--one of our state senators, who supports a Haley opponent, casually referred to her as a "raghead" because she is Indian-American. He then went on to suggest that she is some sort of Manchurian candidate supported by a "network of Sikhs" to take over the governorship.

During a visit to something called "Pub Politics"--an online political chat show hosted from a bar in Columbia...and you know that can't be good--state senator Jake Knotts said: "We already got one raghead in the White House; we don't need a raghead in the governor's mansion."

Ah, South Carolina politics. A breath of fresh air....mixed with skunk and horse manure.

You'd have thought that last idiotic statement by Knotts would have had his handlers scrambling to shut him up, but he just kept talking. He also claims that Haley was a plant being controlled by nefarious handlers; he believes Haley has been set up by a network of Sikhs and has been programmed to run for governor of South Carolina by outside influences in foreign countries. He claims she is hiding her religion and he wants the voters to know about it.

But, and I'm not saying there is some deeply secret Middle Eastern cabal working to elect Nikki Haley, she has taken to speaking less and less about her Sikh heritage and more and more about her Christian beliefs. Her own website, which once played up her attendance at both Sikh and Methodist religious services, now says only that she is a devout Christian, and that she sttends Sikh service only out of respect to her parents.

Is she hiding her Sikh background for the reasons Jake Knotts says, or is she hiding it because of the outbreak of adultery allegations? See, people here seem to think that if you're a Christian and you sin, it's kind of okay, because you'll cry on TV and beg to be forgiven. However, if you're any other religion, especially one o' them middle eastern ones, well, maybe cheating is part of your culture and we don't want none of that.

Whatever the reason, it's the same dirty politics here. Name-calling; allegations of "sinful" behavior; dark secrets. We don't cotton to the facts, to the record of the politician, to the actual words of those running for office. We prefer gossip and dirt and mud.

Jake Knots issued an apology for the "raghead" comment, claiming that it was "intended in jest" and that the "humorous content was lost in translation." Yes, it is funny to call someone a that word, as it is funny to call someone an N-word, or a gay man a fag, or a Latino person a spic; it's all fun and done in jest, at least that's how we roll in South Carolina.

Yet, even while apologizing to Nikki Haley, Jake Knotts got in one more jab by proclaiming that she, by hiding her religious background, or at the very least downplaying it, "is pretending to be someone she is not."

Andre Bauer, another Republican running for governor who has been the subject of taunts about his sexual orientation, also used the "pretending to be someone she is not" line himself when he asked that she take a lie-detector test to prove she isn't a cheater.

I make the suggestion that all political candidates in South Carolina take a polygraph.

Then we'll know whether Nikki Haley cheats on her husband.

Then we'll know whether Andre Bauer is a Friend of Dorothy's or not.

Then we'll know whether Joe Wilson is playing with a full deck.

Then we'll know whether Jake Knotts really is as racist as he sounds.

Then we'll know.

In or Out

So, we're still talking down here in beautiful South Carolina about whether or not we'll impeach the philandering, lying, stealing governor we have now and replace with him with one who, many people swear, is a big old queen.

Cheater? Homo? That's the debate, ridiculous as it sounds.

And now comes word that the smear campaign aimed at Andre Bauer about whether or not he's a Friend Of Dorothy, was started by none other than the adulterer, the cheater, the liar, and the thief, Mark Sanford. Word has it that Mark Sanford thinks the people of South Carolina would rather have a Bible Thumping adulterer than a Bible Thumping homo-sexshul.

Of course, these are all just rumors, but, hell, rumors are fun.

Mark maybe didn't start the Gay Andre story and maybe Gay Andre isn't gay.

See, Jake Knotts, who loathes Mark Sanford almost as much as I do, swears that Andre Bauer isn't gay, but that Mark is spreading that rumor to keep people from begging the State House to impeach him. Knotts, a Republican state senator, wrote to fellow members of the state legislature last week and accused Sanford and his allies of spreading rumors that Bauer is gay—though that claim came from blogger Mike Rogers earlier in the week.

Says Jake Knotts: “As a former target of a false rumor started by the Sanford Camp I can tell you with absolute certainty this attack was orchestrated on behalf of Mark Sanford, either directly or indirectly, and financially subsidized by him or one of his many ‘front-groups.”

Knotts apparently has, ahem, first-hand experience with the fact that Andre Bauer is straight, because, as he says, “I have known Andre since he was eight years old. Ain’t a homosexual bone in his body. That boy is a good boy. It’s a just an attempt to prevent Andre from become governor.”

Not a homosexual bone? I mean, I've heard of the gay gene but now we've got a gay bone? This homosexuality stuff is a lot of work, trying to remember all the rules and the bones, etc.

And why is that Knotts thinks Andre is a straight shooter because he's a "good boy"? Does being gay make you not good? See, from where I stand, looking up homosexual bone in the dictionary, gay is good, sometimes great, sometimes annoying, but it isn't bad.

Got that, Jake?

See, you can say Mark Sanford is trying to smear Andre Bauer's good, non-homosexual name by whipping out the gay card, but you, my dear fellow, are smearing the entire gay community.

And that ain't good.

Now, before I go, let's give Maybe-Gay-Maybe-Not Andre Bauer the last word on the gay question, or the gay bone: “I don’t think it’s a proper question. I think it’s a little bit ridiculous and it’s sad that politics has gotten to that. But if somebody had a question I don't have a problem with going ahead and airing it and getting it out of the way because I don't want that to linger, much like this other problem is lingering. I want to move forward. I want to talk about real issues, how to get improved job growth. How you get education to a better level than it is now, how you fix the budget problem that we've got — not continue to dwell on some silly question in the first place."

Now, this is where I have a problem with Andre. It isn't a silly question if, in fact, you are a closeted gay man who has spent his political career working to deny the same rights and privileges to gay Americans that other opposite-sex marrying Americans take for granted.

If you're gay, then shame on you for your self-loathing.

If you're not gay, then shame on your for your backwoods holier-than-thou attitude.

Lies On Top Of Lies...And He Wants To Be A Repug President

UPDATE:
Cheater!
Mark Sanford has just admitted to cheating on his wife with a woman in South America.
What's that, Mark?
No more Mr. President?
I vote for no more Mr. Governor!
Ensign, Blair, Sanford. The New Repugs!

The Repugs have trotted out many people they thought able to challenge Barack Obama in 2012 and none of them has lived up to the GOP hype.

First we had Sarah Palin, who would rather spar with a certain gap-toothed talk show host or baby daddy than discuss anything pertinent to the American people.

Then we had Bobby Jindal who looked and sounded like a cartoon dog in his rebuttal to a Barack Obama speech.

Of course, the old dog Newt Gingrich woke up, then changed his mind and his religion, and then changed his mind again.

But strangest of all is our own lil ole guv'nah, Mark Sanford of South Carolina. He was thought to be on the fast-track to GOP front-running until his little disappearing act. David Copperfield, he ain't.

Sanford was gone from the governor's office for five days without telling anyone where he was going. The Lieutenant Governor didn't know. The Legislature wasn't told. His own wife was in the dark. Even SLED, who provide security for the governor, didn't know where he went. But then Marky called. He was on a hike in the Appalachians. And we all--well, not all, really--breathed a sigh of relief.

Except. That was a lie. And he wasn't gone four days. Or five days. He was gone....disappeared....for seven days. To South America. To Buenos Aires!

In an interview with The State newspaper, Sanford said he decided at the last minute to go to the South American country to "recharge" after a difficult legislative session in which he battled with lawmakers over how to spend federal stimulus money. he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail, but, "I said 'no' I wanted to do something exotic."

His critics, which right now include most of South Carolina, are slamming his little getaway.

Republican Senator Jake Knotts: "Lies. Lies. Lies. That's all we get from his staff. That's all we get from his people. That's all we get from him. Why all the big cover-up?"

I have a comment as well, Governor, and I use the title loosely.

You were elected by the people of South Carolina, which means you work for us. Which means you don't get to leave your job for days at a time without our knowledge.

Got that?

Have a nice trip back to the private sector. Asshat.