Imagine if you will that an ex-con/former crack cocaine user, Republican ex-mayor of a major American city recently: denounced Asian-American store owners in his city for running "dirty" shops, insulted Filipina immigrant nurses, saying they were taking away jobs from Americans, and, most recently, wound up using a racial slur against another ethnic group during an event intended to mend fences with Asian-Americans. Oh, and also imagine that same Republican is a delegate for Mitt Romney at the upcoming GOP convention.
The national media would be all over the story. But it's not a Republican who's done all these things, it's Councilman Marion Barry (D) of Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post's Paul Schwartzman has the latest development on its Metro section front today (emphais mine):
At a news conference after the meeting, Barry and several Asian American leaders sought to present a united front, saying that the dialogue is an important step toward defusing long-standing tension between blacks and Asians. Asked about the underlying sources of the conflict, Barry said the United States “has had racial tensions since it was founded.”
“The Irish caught hell, the Jews caught hell, the Polacks caught hell,” Barry said, invoking a word that Polish people have viewed as disparaging. “We want Ward 8 to be the model of diversity.”
Asked later about his reference to “Polacks,” Barry at first denied using the word, then retracted it, saying, “I meant Poles.”
His remark prompted a demand from Gary Kenzer, executive director of the Chicago-based Polish American Association, that Barry “apologize to the Polish American community of this country.”
While the Washington Post and Politico have kept tabs on the still-rolling Barry trainwreck, a search of Nexis transcripts yielded no stories on Barry on ABC, CBS, or NBC's evening or morning news programs in the past two months.
