On the 4pm hour of Monday's The Situation Room, anchor Wolf Blitzer highlighted several political news stories, including Republican candidate for president, Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)'s use of the term "tar baby". To some, the term is a racial epithet, however the true meaning of the word is a "sticky situation," hence the term 'tar'.
CNN's Jack Cafferty joined the program Blitzer was finished reading the headlines with his 'Cafferty File' segment. Cafferty, who is known for his unscripted remarks, opined on the 'tar baby' situation and applied Romney meant the comment in a racist sense. However, Cafferty did not make the audience aware of his racist past (video link to follow):
CAFFERTY: I don't have an assessment.It's comforting to -- to look at guys like Romney and the tar baby remark and -- and know that we have such a -- a high-quality stable of candidates waiting to take over the nation's highest office. What the hell is he thinking? Tar baby? I mean, come on.
Cafferty has used several racial epithet's of his own, even on CNN. The ADC notes Jack's insensitivity towards those of Japanese descent:
It should be noted that Cafferty has a history of insensitive remarks towards many minority groups, not just Arabs and Muslims. In November of last year, he allegedly went as far as to crudely mock the Japanese language through a series of “ching” and “chong” noises.
Full transcript of the exchange:
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: A possible Republican presidential hopeful is apologizing for using racially charged words. Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts referred to the troubled Big Dig construction project in his home state as a tar baby, said it's -- said it at a fund-raiser with Iowa Republicans on Saturday. Romney now says he didn't know anyone would be offended by the term, which some consider to be a racial epithet.
### JACK CAFFERTY: I don't have an assessment.
It's comforting to -- to look at guys like Romney and the tar baby remark and -- and know that we have such a -- a high-quality stable of candidates waiting to take over the nation's highest office. What the hell is he thinking? Tar baby? I mean, come on.
