South Carolina GOP State Sen: "We've got a raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the Governor's Mansion"

Of course, I'm taking this totally out of context, but the sound bite is just plain awful any way you slice it.

For context, you had to listen to Pub Politics today.
[Update - Wesley Donehue (yes... that Wesley Donehue!) usually publishes this week's Pub Politics the day after the show.  I'll link to the video (hopefully it won't be edited out) containing Senator Knott's off color commentary as soon as it is available.] 

South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts referenced an email campaign (click here) by Pat Robertson to inform voters about Nikki Haley's efforts to hide her Sikh upbringing.

Haley was raised with the Sikh faith and just like President Obama has gone out of her way to make sure people know she is a Christian. Just like Obama in 2008, Haley has a “truth” section on her website to address the question, “Is Nikki Haley a Christian”?

The point Knotts was trying to make (poorly) was that many voters believe Haley is secretly still a Sikh or at least not a real Christian.  He was offering up his astute political analysis and not his personal beliefs (giving him the benefit of the doubt here).

I believe the money quote was Senator Knotts making a poor impersonation of the typical Religious Right voter brainwashed by Pat Robertson.  So in his poorly impersonated voice he said "We've got a raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the Governor's Mansion."  Bad joke, Senator. Really, really dumb.

Easy sound bite for anybody (like me) to use completely out of context.  But I won't.  Now, he could really have meant to call Haley and Obama "ragheads" but for now I'm going to give Senator Knotts the benefit of the doubt and say he made a bad joke at the expense of certain residents of South Carolina.  Maybe they'll demand an apology!

But suffice to say, this story has already gone nuclear.  Senator Knotts might want to explain what he really meant (and erase all doubt) ASAP...














UPDATE:  Predictably, this is generating a lot of blowback.  Points of clarification: Yes, I listened to the entire show today.  Knotts made reference to Pat Robertson's email (similar content as this blog post on CBN) much earlier in the show before he referenced it again just prior to the money quote.  That's why I say you really, really need the context which we won't have in full until Pub Politics publishes today's show (which I would expect tomorrow or later today) and Senator Knotts responds to clarify what he really meant.  Until then, I'm going to assume based on what I heard that Senator Knotts was doing a poor impersonation or joke at the expense certain South Carolia voters.  It was in poor taste at least and may be racist depending on what Senator Knotts really meant.  He obviously forgot that he wasn't doing standup comedy at a roadhouse.  Dumb, dumb, dumb!

UPDATE AGAIN:  Ben Smith has a good rundown from earlier today of the religion controversy re: Nikki Haley.  This is the backstory and context that Senator Knotts was alluding to when he made his extremely stupid remarks.  That's all the background I can provide.  Listen for yourself if and when the video is available.  I'm not defending Knotts (as I've acknowledge several times his remarks were incredibly stupid) but people deserve to know the context behind his remarks.  He will need to respond to clarify just what he meant.  Until then, I'm not joining the knee jerk chorus that judges the man a guilty racist who needs to be sentenced to prison for a hate crime or something.  But at the very least, Knotts just gave the GOP a major case of heartburn at a time when the South Carolina GOP is generating a lot of negative press.