SunWuKong
09-26-2006, 10:26 AM
apparently the district director of a Congressional candidate from Minnesota was videotaped yelling at people about driving "Jap cars".
what a Macaca!
http://www.startribune.com/587/story/688424.html
Kline staffer filmed using racial term outside Rowley event
WASHINGTON -- Just when you thought the congressional campaign between John Kline and Coleen Rowley couldn't get any weirder, a video appeared on a Minnesota political blog showing Kline's district director screaming about "another Jap car."
It was posted by DFL activists who taped a small GOP protest. It happened at a visit by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Marine turned anti-war hero who was in Rosemount on Sunday stumping for Rowley in the Second Congressional District race.
Kline's Minnesota director, former state Rep. Mike Osskopp, was seen repeatedly chiding people who arrived in foreign-made cars at the Murtha event at a local VFW hall.
Witnesses said they heard Osskopp several times use the word, considered a disparaging term for Japanese. One Rowley supporter, Paul Bartlett, complained Monday to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, noting that Osskopp is a "high-level federal employee."
Osskopp, who rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the event, apologized for the remark Tuesday.
"I apologize if my words offended any Americans of Japanese descent, including my sister-in-law," Osskopp said. "I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and used a phrase commonly used in my youth, but which is now inappropriate and offensive."
The episode in Rosemount represents a faint echo of racial gaffes that have marred other congressional campaigns this year, including those by Sen. George Allen, R-Va., and Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
But this time the controversial remark was uttered by a campaign aide, and Kline was quick to condemn it.
"That's unacceptable now," Kline said. "We've all seen the John Wayne movies about World War II, and then it was acceptable. Now it's not, and [Osskopp] knows that."
The incident perpetuates a personal feud that started earlier this year when a doctored photo of Kline was posted on Rowley's campaign website depicting him as Col. Klink of the "Hogan's Heroes" TV series.
Since then, Kline's campaign has accused David Bailey, an unpaid staffer on Rowley's campaign, of being a "double agent" and trying to infiltrate his campaign by making an illegal contribution.
The bad blood continued last week when Democrats announced that Murtha -- like Kline, a decorated Marine -- would come to Minnesota to back Rowley, a critic of the war in Iraq.
Organizers said more than 250 people turned out for Murtha's appearance Sunday at VFW Post 9433, which was billed as a veterans' event to "meet and greet" Murtha.
The video also shows a dozen or more protesters, including Osskopp, who says he was there on his own time.
Kline staffers said Osskopp's outburst was prompted in part by a Rowley supporter who showed up in a Ford Explorer SUV and blamed Republicans for the loss of his job at the Ford auto plant in St. Paul.
Osskopp responded by pointing out a number of foreign-made cars driving into the parking lot, at times pointing and yelling.
Greg Skog, associate chairman for the DFL in State Senate District 38, was on hand taping the Rowley event with Murtha. When he heard the commotion, he said, he went outside and started taping Osskopp.
Skog said he turned over the grainy video to Mike McIntee, who posted it on his liberal website, Inside Minnesota Politics (www.insideminnesotapolitics.blogspot.com).
Bartlett, who wrote a letter to the civil rights commission, also was a witness. "It reminded me of some very crass behavior that I thought we had moved beyond 20 years ago," he said.
Bartlett, a frequent Kline critic and Rowley supporter, is well-known to the Kline campaign, which has a lengthy file of his e-mails and blog entries, some of which insult Kline in crude terms.
Steve Sutton, Kline's chief of staff, dismissed Bartlett's civil rights complaint as "synthetic outrage ... It's like being called insensitive by David Duke."
what a Macaca!
http://www.startribune.com/587/story/688424.html
Kline staffer filmed using racial term outside Rowley event
WASHINGTON -- Just when you thought the congressional campaign between John Kline and Coleen Rowley couldn't get any weirder, a video appeared on a Minnesota political blog showing Kline's district director screaming about "another Jap car."
It was posted by DFL activists who taped a small GOP protest. It happened at a visit by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Marine turned anti-war hero who was in Rosemount on Sunday stumping for Rowley in the Second Congressional District race.
Kline's Minnesota director, former state Rep. Mike Osskopp, was seen repeatedly chiding people who arrived in foreign-made cars at the Murtha event at a local VFW hall.
Witnesses said they heard Osskopp several times use the word, considered a disparaging term for Japanese. One Rowley supporter, Paul Bartlett, complained Monday to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, noting that Osskopp is a "high-level federal employee."
Osskopp, who rode his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to the event, apologized for the remark Tuesday.
"I apologize if my words offended any Americans of Japanese descent, including my sister-in-law," Osskopp said. "I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and used a phrase commonly used in my youth, but which is now inappropriate and offensive."
The episode in Rosemount represents a faint echo of racial gaffes that have marred other congressional campaigns this year, including those by Sen. George Allen, R-Va., and Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
But this time the controversial remark was uttered by a campaign aide, and Kline was quick to condemn it.
"That's unacceptable now," Kline said. "We've all seen the John Wayne movies about World War II, and then it was acceptable. Now it's not, and [Osskopp] knows that."
The incident perpetuates a personal feud that started earlier this year when a doctored photo of Kline was posted on Rowley's campaign website depicting him as Col. Klink of the "Hogan's Heroes" TV series.
Since then, Kline's campaign has accused David Bailey, an unpaid staffer on Rowley's campaign, of being a "double agent" and trying to infiltrate his campaign by making an illegal contribution.
The bad blood continued last week when Democrats announced that Murtha -- like Kline, a decorated Marine -- would come to Minnesota to back Rowley, a critic of the war in Iraq.
Organizers said more than 250 people turned out for Murtha's appearance Sunday at VFW Post 9433, which was billed as a veterans' event to "meet and greet" Murtha.
The video also shows a dozen or more protesters, including Osskopp, who says he was there on his own time.
Kline staffers said Osskopp's outburst was prompted in part by a Rowley supporter who showed up in a Ford Explorer SUV and blamed Republicans for the loss of his job at the Ford auto plant in St. Paul.
Osskopp responded by pointing out a number of foreign-made cars driving into the parking lot, at times pointing and yelling.
Greg Skog, associate chairman for the DFL in State Senate District 38, was on hand taping the Rowley event with Murtha. When he heard the commotion, he said, he went outside and started taping Osskopp.
Skog said he turned over the grainy video to Mike McIntee, who posted it on his liberal website, Inside Minnesota Politics (www.insideminnesotapolitics.blogspot.com).
Bartlett, who wrote a letter to the civil rights commission, also was a witness. "It reminded me of some very crass behavior that I thought we had moved beyond 20 years ago," he said.
Bartlett, a frequent Kline critic and Rowley supporter, is well-known to the Kline campaign, which has a lengthy file of his e-mails and blog entries, some of which insult Kline in crude terms.
Steve Sutton, Kline's chief of staff, dismissed Bartlett's civil rights complaint as "synthetic outrage ... It's like being called insensitive by David Duke."