No, Mitt didn’t say it. But the true head of the GOP did.
by digby
Yahoo News fired its Washington bureau chief on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he was caught on an open microphone saying that Mitt Romney and his wife, at the GOP convention in Florida while a hurricane was approaching Louisiana, were “happy to have a party with black people drowning.”
Company spokeswoman Anne Espiritu said Wednesday that David Chalian’s remark was inappropriate and does not represent Yahoo’s views.
Ok. Except there are very prominent Republicans who are having a grand old time with the prospect:
RUSH LIMBAUGH: Okay, folks, it’s a moment of truth. We are mere hours away now from Tropical Storm Isaac, which everybody is desperately hoping becomes a hurricane. I can’t believe this. They are desperately hoping that it becomes a hurricane. It’s the Democrats’ wet dream that this thing hit New Orleans. So, you know me. My middle name is Solutions. I have some ideas for the Republicans. How to deal with the tropical storm, slash, hurricane hitting New Orleans.
The first thing we do is offer to send 500 bus drivers to New Orleans, paid for by us, to make sure that the buses that were not used by the Democrat mayor during Hurricane Katrina will be used to evacuate people should it become necessary. The second thing that I think the Republicans ought to do is send bags of money instead of sand. Bags full of money to shore up the levees in New Orleans. This would accomplish many things. A, it would show our compassion. B, we could have Romney’s five sons who CNN last night asked, “What’s it like to be rich as sin,” or whatever. They did. Piers Morgan asked Romney’s sons, (paraphrasing) “What’s it like to be stinking rich?” So we have Romney’s five sons deliver the bags of money to shore up the levees.
Now, this will accomplish much. It will show our compassion, and it will do something else. Once we publicize that we have sent 500 bags of money — well, whatever number of bags, bags filled with money to shore up the levees, what will happen? The poor of New Orleans will storm the levees and steal the bags, thereby putting themselves at risk for the eventual flooding that will happen once they remove the bags of money. And that way the Republicans can get rid of even more Democrats in Louisiana and shore up the state for themselves. How about those two ideas, folks? Am I not thinking or am I thinking?
Now, it’s true that Mitt and Rush aren’t the same and it’s wrong to convict Romney of guilt by association. Chalian has apologized and he’s been fired.
Rush’s angry, frustrated critics discount how hard it is to make an outrageous charge against him stick. But, we listeners have spent years with him, we know him, and trust him. Rush is one of those rare acquaintances who can be defended against an assault challenging his character without ever knowing the “facts.” We trust his good judgment, his unerring decency, and his fierce loyalty to the country he loves and to the courageous young Americans who defend her.
And, by the way, Mitt does “pal around” with Limbaugh, but Rush says he hasn’t talked to him “in weeks.” And it’s wrong to assume that Mitt listened to Rush’s broadcast yesterday and agreed with it. More likely, those attendees who threw peanuts at the African American camerawoman and said they were “feeding the animals” did.
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