The Cracker Defense Why

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The Cracker Defense! Why didn’t Trent Lott think of that?

Ohio Senate President Doug White recently got into trouble for using the phrase “Jew them down” at a fundraising event just before last November’s election. When called on the remark, White said he wasn’t aware the phrase was considered offensive and pled his rural upbringing as a defense. “Hillbillies use certain ways, briar-hoppers use certain ways. I’m a hillbilly.” The phrase, White said, only meant “to be a sound bargainer, to be an effective bargainer – I wish I were a better bargainer.”

White later saw the error of his ways and apologized. “I said, ‘Look guys, I’m as sorry as I can be. Call me ignorant, but don’t call me anti-Semitic. That’s just not me.’ I’m rural.”

But White’s other rural ways may now be catching up with him too. It seems the aptly-named Mr. White has the rather archaic habit of rubbing the heads of nearby African-Americans in order to put himself on the right side of the fates. Dayton Mayor, and former state senator, Rhine McLin told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that White had now and again rubbed her head or shoulder for good luck when she served in the senate. “McLin, who is black, said the conduct dates back to a superstition that rubbing a black person brings good fortune,” says the article in today’s edition. “Although offended by the conduct, McLin said she never complained to White or asked him to stop. Instead, she said she tried to stay out of his way.”

White is now disputing the head-rubbing charge. And his fellow senate Republicans are rallying to his defense.

Special thanks to TPM reader JDW for bringing this to TPM’s attention.

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