"Slavishly" vs. "Niggardly"
By Michelle Malkin · October 18, 2006 10:22 AM
Michael Steele: Smeared again
When I first read that House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, had apologized for accusing GOP Senate candidate Michael Steele of "slavishly" supporting the GOP(http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/17/democrats.apology/index.html), I thought it might be a case of political correctness run amok.
I have criticized(http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003823.htm) his unhinged Democrat attackers (http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003791.htm) before for their obnoxiously over-the-top racist comments. Initially, I thought the Hoyer comment did not rise to that level. It made me think of the silly brouhaha over a local D.C. government official's use of the word "niggardly."(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/jan99/district27.htm)
I was prepared to write that Hoyer had gotten a bad rap, that perhaps the Steele campaign was a little too sensitive, and that GOP staffers had read too much into Hoyer's remarks.
But then I read more about the context of his remarks and Hoyer's past history of race-based insults against Steele. Hoyer didn't just innocently use the word in ordinary conversation. He employed it during a comedy routine (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15287637/) in front of a crowd of mostly black business owners (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701440.html):
[Democrat Senate candidate Ben] Cardin, a dry and detailed-oriented career legislator, was upstaged at his Upper Marlboro event Sunday by the irrepressible Rep. Steny Hoyer, who did a comedy routine about the event’s host, Cool Wave Water, and told the audience that Steele had had “a career of slavishly supporting the Republican Party.”
Why would it be funny if not for the sneering, racist implications? Hoyer is the number two Democrat in Congress. He knew what he was doing: pandering. Hoyer now claims disingenuously that no insult was intended. Bull. In the past, Hoyer has derided Steele as a "token." (http://www.mdgop.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=2180) Black Democrats in Maryland have no problem with smearing Steele as an "Uncle Tom." (http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003823.htm) On urban radio, I've heard black leaders similarly mocking Steele.
This is the Democratic smear strategy in Maryland. They have nothing but cowardly, empty ad hominem attacks--and illegal dumpster-diving schemes.
It's been an uphill battle for Steele. Latest poll shows him 9 points behind. Show him your support here. (http://www.steeleformaryland.com/)
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