Wash. State Rep. Calls Arizona ‘Racist Wasteland’ After NFL Loss

In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, speaks on the House floor in Olympia, Wash. It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law... In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Burien, speaks on the House floor in Olympia, Wash. It has been just shy of 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Washington state law barring members of the Communist Party from working for the state is unconstitutional. Evidently, that is not enough time to remove it from the books. Fitzgibbon first introduced a measure to repeal the anachronistic law last year, saying that it would be a quiet end to a moot statute originating from a dark period in our nation’s history. Though his bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee, it did do so on a party-line vote, with four Republicans opposed. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) MORE LESS
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A state lawmaker redefined what it is to be a poor sport Sunday after he called Arizona a “racist wasteland” for defeating his home football team.

Washington state Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D) tweeted the comment Sunday night after the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Arizona Cardinals.

“Losing a football game sucks,” Fitzgibbon wrote in the now-deleted tweet, according to the Associated Press. “Losing to a desert racist wasteland sucks a lot.”

Fitzgibbon later tweeted an apology, although he was not quite so repentant in an interview with the AP.

“If folks are going to take that too seriously, then I’m sorry about that,” Fitzgibbon told the AP.

He added that residents of Washington state “have not appreciated” how Arizona has treated immigrants, citing the federal government’s challenge to the state’s contested immigration law. He also told the AP he believes the state’s laws amount to racial profiling.

[h/t Huffington Post]

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