1 Boring Old Man

South Carolina Senator Jake Knotts calls President Barack Obama a ’raghead’
The National Post
By Mary Vallis
June 4, 2010

Politics 101: Don’t use racial slurs. Someone should have told South Carolina Senator Jake Knotts before he opened his yap this week and blurted “ragheads.” Here’s what he told an Internet talk show about Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants. The term is a slur typically used against Arabs or other ethnic groups who wear turbans or headdresses. Haley, a state representative from Lexington, is the child of Indian immigrants.

“We already got one raghead in the White House,” Knotts said, according to The State. “We don’t need another in the Governor’s Mansion.”

So, yeah. That’s bad. Sen. Knotts claims the comments were “intended in jest“: “Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It’s like local political version of ‘Saturday Night Live.’” Even so, did he have to say all that? South Carolina’s Republicans are all for free speech, but even they disagree. Politico quotes Haley spokesman Tim Pearson as saying:

“Jake Knotts represents all that is wrong with South Carolina politics. He’s an embarrassment to our state and to the Republican Party. South Carolina is so much better than this, and the people of our state will make that quite clear next Tuesday.”

^{The Biggest Loser candidate
State Senator Jake Knotts}

Knotts could face GOP censure
Politico
By KASIE HUNT
6/10/10

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Republicans in South Carolina’s Lexington County are slated to meet Thursday night to weigh a possible reprimand for state Sen. Jake Knotts, the legislator who used an ethnic slur to describe GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley. Knotts, who used the term "raghead" to describe both Haley and President Barack Obama, could be censured by the county GOP, or called to resign from office or leave the party, a Republican aide said. “They can’t do anything that will have a practical effect, but it’s symbolic,” the aide said.

Haley, whose parents were Sikh immigrants, took 49 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor and beat her closest rival, Rep. Gresham Barrett, by 27 points. Haley and Barrett are now competing in a June 22 runoff vote. Addressing reporters near the statehouse Thursday, Haley steered clear of the Knotts issue, saying: "I really have not thought about it at all."