Political Quotes

“I did not in any way mean to diminish the offensive comments addressed by the Lantos resolution. As I have said repeatedly, I also find them racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, and homophobic. The sad matter of the whole thing is that no matter how offensive those remarks are, there have been other remarks that have been uttered in public that have been just as offensive, to be sure. Take, for example, remarks uttered by a person who resides in the State of South Carolina, where black people were referred to as darkies, Hispanics were referred to previously as wetbacks, Africans were referred to in last December as Cannibals. In spite of how repulsive and offensive those remarks are, we certainly have not seen a resolution in this body or the other body that seeks to condemn them. Not until this unfortunate event have we underscored even in the most inadvertent of ways the extent to which a double standard is at play in this Nation when it comes to offensive remarks.”