Firmly secure your eyeballs in their sockets, because they’re gonna roll, and they’re gonna roll hard.
There’s currently a debate raging about whether or not Frothman actually said “black people” (I wrote about the “blah heard ’round the world” here) or whether he simply stumbled over his words and said “blah” or “bligh” people.
Tommy Christopher at Mediaite makes a strong argument that “black people” was just a slip of the tongue, and it’s an argument I’d be 100 percent inclined to believe if I gave a crap. (And I mean no disrespect to Mr. Christopher.)
Non-conservative (and non-white) folks are arguing that perhaps Santorum is a bigot of some stripe (he is), but that perhaps he should be given the benefit of the doubt here (really?)
At the end of the day, I don’t give a good gotdamn, and I’ll tell you why.
First, he waited far too long to rectify the slip of the tongue, meaning he either said “black people,” or didn’t say black people, but didn’t care enough to make a statement clarifying what he said until he’d been thoroughly mocked for it. He should have immediately said “oops, my bad!” and that would’ve been the end of it. The Blacks™ are a very forgiving people. (I have no statistics to back up this assertion, so take it with a grain of salt.)
Second, it’s not like Santorum is on the front lines of anti-racism and therefore warrants being afforded the benefit of the doubt. Here’s a doozy from the Steve Benen Vault, wherein Santorum pontificates about marriage in the black community — as if he knows what he’s even talking about: Continue reading →
