Rep. Jenkins: GOP looking for `great white hope'

[steven johnson]

Source: Associated Press

A freshman Republican congresswoman apologized Thursday for telling a gathering in her district that the GOP was still searching for a "great white hope" to stop President Barack Obama's political agenda.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins used the phrase during an Aug. 19 forum as she discussed the Republican Party's future and tried to reassure members that the GOP has promising young leaders. Someone in the crowd recorded video of the event in Hiawatha, about 65 miles northeast of Topeka, and gave it to the Kansas Democratic Party.

"I was unaware of any negative connotation, and if I offended anybody, obviously, I apologize," Jenkins told the Lawrence Journal-World.

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," Jenkins said last week. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iTHvyXMSeuAHmv8eJyl7v2pmkgkgD9ABBNOG0

[fascisthunter]

1. bend over and run into a wall... you'll see white

if ya hit it hard enough. I hope you do!

[Robb]

2. What an idiot. nt

[bemildred]

3. The usual complete lack of clue.

"I was unaware of any negative connotation, and if I offended anybody, obviously, I apologize"

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-14969862.html

[No Elephants]

29. "The usual complete lack of clue",,,,Followed by the usual non-apology.

[TerribleLarryDingle]

4. I'm Shocked!

:sarcasm:

[truthisfreedom]

5. Jesus, what an idiot.

We need more rethugs like him. They can keep themselves occupied for years with that kind of self-destructive ignorance.

[No Elephants]

31. Read only the headline, then post. Gutsy!

[sasquatch]

6. I'm telling you, sometime in September they'll use the N-word when describing him

[MadMaddie]

25. Oh it's coming.....and Beck and Limpballs will lead the pack

Then the Repug congresscritters will feel that it is okay.

When it does happen Steele will just say that he knows of no one using that terminology. Steele is nothing but a houseboy to the Repug party and a dumb one at that.

[TxVietVet]

28. I believe you.

YES, SIR! The racist KKKonservanazi pukes will be resorting to the nasty N-word.
It will send their party to the trash heap of history. :rofl:

[thelordofhell]

7. Jenkins, The Great White Dope

[Robeysays]

19. haha

awesome

[No Elephants]

30. The Hate White Dope. Nothing great about her.

[SemperEadem]

8. perhaps she should have said "box of mothballs"

what she said IS true. Right now, all they have to rely on is palin, romney or huckabee.

[Bette Noir]

11. Good Lord.

How thin is the field, when Romney is the best alternative?

[sofa king]

18. I love that guy. He reminds me of the stereotypical used car salesman.

And I should know because I worked with them, the good ones and the alcoholic, vapid, nacissistic, and sociopathic ones. The stereotype exists because there is a never-ending stream of self-centered, dishonest con-men (usually men) willing to play the part. The good ones point the bad ones straight at each other, make them compete ruthlessly, and do their own jobs while the schemers tear one another apart.

That's what Mitt brings to the table: a willingness to ruthlessly cut the legs out from under any other opponent who approaches him--and they will be Republican opponents, all of them (except Sarah Palin) smarter and more dangerous than he. I wish him the best of luck in the next election cycle, because his success will be won only at the ultimate expense of his party.

[DinahMoeHum]

9. Tee hee. The GOP opens mouth and inserts foot again.

:rofl::rofl:

[vinylsolution]

10. Well, they already have Limbaugh....

.... AKA the Great White Whale. Then there's Palin, who is the Great White Dope.

What more could the Repugs possibly need?

apart from ideas, leaders, and the slightest sense of direction.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

24. rotflmAO!

:rofl:

[Panhandle Dem]

12. It's a wonder it doesn't happen more often...

We already know people of her ilk have racist tendencies. Just goes to show you can't hide your true self. Sooner or later it spills out.

[bowens43]

13. the worst kind of racist

the racism is so much a part of her the she doesn't even know that she's a racist.......

[urgk]

14. I think ten thousand republicans just read that, slapped their foreheads...

and realized that a typo had them all bending over headfirst, looking for a great white hole.

[xchrom]

15. god bless their pointy little racist heads.nt

[nolabear]

16. HAH! He hasn't learned to lie yet.

I hate it when these newbies give the game plan away.

[MadMaddie]

26. Actually it's a woman......

[sofa king]

17. "unaware of any negative connotation"

I believe James Earl Jones can illustrate the problem better than most:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_White_Hope

And, to a certain extent, the comparison between Jack Johnson (and the fictionalized Jack Johnson that JEJ played in the film) and President Barack Obama is attractive to me. Both were heavyweights in their respective fields. Both were, apparently, unbeatable. Both elicited negative reactions because of their obvious competence, which went against traditional, racist dogma. Both presented their deeds as primary evidence of their greatness. Both had the potential to be the greatest, and both were/are being held back only by the basest and most desperate racially motivated opposition.

Considering the type of apology being offered, I think it's possible that Rep. Jenkins really didn't know the connotation behind the phrase. Republican racists and those who do their bidding are often unaware of what they're really saying and doing.

That's not an excuse, it's a damnation.

[No Elephants]

32. If she had said, "We're looking for the great white guy/gal" would it have been any less racist?

You don't need specific knowledge about Johnson to know that "the great white" anything is a racist statement.

Besides, if she doesn't know about Johnson, how does she know the term? She has to have been hearing it somewhere.

[sofa king]

35. Here's how I think it worked.

First, I agree with you, that your turn of phrase would have been more direct and just as offensive.

I think that she specifically chose the phrase "great white hope" to avoid that direct statement, an imperfect employment of the racist code-speech in which Republicans now excel. Maybe she thought James Earl Jones was the Great White Hope, and thought she could slide it by that way. So yeah, she stepped in the cow poop while avoiding the cow poop. No doubt in my mind about that.

I'm sure Rep. Jenkins would be further appalled to learn that the phrase was coined by notorious socialist and alcoholic Jack London. You know, the Republicans have been getting good mileage out of pretending they're not Nazis by pointing out the "Socialist" red herring in the Nazi name. What if we pointed out that some socialists were also racists, just like Nazis? That confuses me right now.

Seriously, I think it's high time that racism be exposed as the thought disorder that I think it is. I hope there is a cure for it. But you never know: The racists could be as genetically tied to racism as homosexuals are to homosexuality. Wouldn't that be fun to learn.

[varelse]

20. "I was unaware of any negative connotation"

Ms Jenkins... THAT statement is almost as offensive as the one for which you're "apologizing".

Someone get this woman a clue-by-four!

[Humbertink]

21. Michele Bachmann has a new friend

:puke:

[cascadiance]

22. I'm guessing this is his REAL "great white hope"...

[KamaAina]

23. Um, GOP? Your racism is showing...

:grr:

[TxVietVet]

27. Let it show, let it show.....

LET IT SHOW. :hurts:

That's why they are called the KKKonservanazi republiKlans. :rofl:

[No Elephants]

34. Nothing new. Same old, same old.

[No Elephants]

33. Her statement shows she is racist. Her apology shows she is a moran.

That is the Republican Perfecta.