Don Young's racist slur not good for GOP's minority outreach

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Republican elected official who casually uses the racist term “wetbacks” during a radio interview is a dunderhead of the first magnitude.

“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, 79, told radio station KRBD in Ketchikan on Thursday. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Republicans, whose self-inflicted injuries in the 2012 election cycle included calls for self-deportation, screeds against the Dream Act and a suggestion for alligator-filled moats at the U.S.-Mexico border, scrambled into damage control mode.

House Speaker John A. Boehner, and just about every other sentient politician, wasted no time condemning his colleague Friday morning: “Congressman Young’s remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds. I don’t care why he said it – there’s no excuse and it warrants an immediate apology.”

And there it was, a short time later, in a statement from Young: “I apologize for the insensitive term I used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska. There was no malice in my heart or intent to offend; it was a poor choice of words. That word, and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I’m sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-don-young-racist-slur-20130329,0,6560588.story