Republicans pretend to be offended in order to score points via chimichanga

[Thor Simpson]

GOP demands apology for Obama campaign manager's 'chimichanga' tweet
By Justin Sink - 02/15/12 12:18 PM ET

Republicans are demanding an apology Wednesday from President Obama's campaign manager after a tweet that they argue was insulting toward Latino Americans.

Jim Messina, who is helming the president's reelection effort, tweeted a line from a column written by The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, in which he argues that Republicans will struggle to attract the Latino vote after coming out against the DREAM immigration reform act.

"Line of the day from WAPO's Dana Milbank: 'The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos,' " Messina tweeted.

But the comments drew rebuke from Republicans, who argued the reference to the deep-fried burrito was culturally insensitive.

"The fact that the campaign manager of President Obama's reelection campaign thinks it's appropriate to disseminate insulting jokes about the Hispanic community is a perfect example of the kind of empty rhetoric that characterizes this White House's so-called outreach to Latinos. We demand that Mr. Messina immediately apologize and we ask that President Obama disavow his campaign manager's ridiculous statement," said Jennifer Sevilla Korn, executive director of the conservative Hispanic Leadership Network, in a statement.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) also hammered Messina over the comments. The RNC's Latino Twitter account re-tweeted one user's comment telling Messina, "[N]ot to try and insult your intelligence or anything, but not all Hispanics are about chimichangas."

Alexandra Franceschi, who handles Latino press for the RNC, also blasted Obama's campaign manager.

"[Messina] clearly doesn’t understand the diversity of Hispanic community. Hispanics deserve an apology for his inflammatory comment," Franceschi tweeted.

RNC political director Rick Wiley — a frequent Messina antagonist on Twitter — called the tweet "ridiculous" in a series of tweets throughout the morning.

"You might need to call your own office on the ridiculous tweet re: chimichanga's [sic]," Wiley tweeted. "Very insensitive bro."

Later Wiley noted outrage over the comment, telling Messina to "put your helmet on bro, only going to get worse."

Republicans are hoping the issue could provide inroads with Latino voters, the largest growing group of American voters, who have largely supported President Obama. A November poll by Univision News found that two-thirds of Latino voters approved of the job the president was doing, a far higher clip than with the electorate as a whole.

The same poll found 42 percent of Latinos believed the Republican Party doesn't care about reaching out to Hispanics — and 30 percent describing Republicans as hostile to their community.

http://thehill.com/blogs/twitter-roo...michanga-tweet

I expect Latinos to get pissy about this type of comment when it's made by Republican leaders, but this just doesn't play as well. I'm also surprised the guy said this in the wake of other recent mexican food blow-ups*.

3 things:

1) I don't understand the tweet to begin with.

2) Chimichangas are good, and you should be PROUD to be associated with them in any way.

3) Please...



*Reference to political fallout, not things that transpire in a bathroom

[SkullOrchard]

They might have thought Messina said Chinkychangas.

[Ky-Fi]

I would say this country is going to need a gulag system set up for hate criminals and their hateful hate.

[Dr Mabuse]

I'm just glad it's only Republicans that employ fauxrage over stuff like this.

[Groucho]

Republicans, know this: I'm not Hispanic, but I'll vote however you'd like if there's a chimichanga in it for me.

[Thor Simpson]

What did he mean by the original tweet? Can someone explain it?

"The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos"

I understand the latter part, implying Republicans have little to offer Latinos, but what is the chimichanga reference with regard to Republicans having it to offer.

[Dr Mabuse]

I don't know, but I'm outraged over it.

[Venusian]

Originally Posted by Thor Simpson

What did he mean by the original tweet? Can someone explain it?

"The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos"

I understand the latter part, implying Republicans have little to offer Latinos, but what is the chimichanga reference with regard to Republicans having it to offer.

Check the original article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...UER_print.html

Some spoke about transportation. Others spoke about the budget. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke about the wonders of his state. “The lettuce in your salad this month almost certainly came from Arizona,” McCain said. “It’s also believed that the chimichanga has its origin in Arizona.”

The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos.

[Thor Simpson]

That explains why he mentioned a chimichanga.

I still don't get it. What is he implying? How is the chimichanga something that republicans have to offer Latinos?

McCain was talking about Arizona.

[JasonF]

Here's the Dana Milbank column that Messina was riffing on:

Does the GOP care about Latino voters?
By Dana Milbank, Published: February 14
When it comes to Latino voters, Republicans must have un impulso suicida.

What else but a death wish could explain the party’s treatment of the fastest-growing voting bloc in the nation? First was the wave of Arizona-style immigration laws. Then came the anti-immigrant rhetoric from the GOP presidential candidates. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans roughed up Adalberto Jose Jordan — because, well, just because they could.

Jordan is the very picture of the American dream: Born in Cuba, he fled with his parents to the United States at age six and went on to become a lawyer and clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. With the support of his home-state senator, Republican Marco Rubio (Fla.), a fellow Cuban American, Jordan was nominated to become the first Cuban-born judge to serve on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

There is no serious objection to his confirmation — which makes the hazing he has experienced all the more inexplicable. Republicans slow-walked his nomination (he was approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee in July), then filibustered his confirmation vote on the Senate floor. Even when the filibuster was broken Monday night (by a lopsided 89-5), a lone Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, used a procedural hurdle to postpone the confirmation vote by two days, to Wednesday.

Congressional staffers I checked with couldn’t recall a similar instance of blocking a confirmation even after a filibuster had failed. This would seem to be a unique humiliation for a man hailed by the Hispanic National Bar Association because of “the positive message this nomination sends to the Latino community.”

Paul, whose home-state Hispanic population is just 3 percent, had a different message. He used his senatorial prerogative to leave Jordan twisting in the wind for another 30 hours – because Paul wanted to use him as leverage to secure an extraneous amendment (rescinding foreign aid to Egypt) to an unrelated bill (transportation).

“Some senators are concerned that I may be delaying a vote in the Senate. This is not true,” Paul said on the floor Tuesday morning, in direct contradiction of the facts. He complained about assistance going to the Egyptians, who “now hold 19 U.S. citizens virtually hostage.”

Republican leaders couldn’t — or wouldn’t — defy their colleague. Asked about the holdup, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said only: “I’m a great admirer of the junior senator of Kentucky.”

Democrats waited out the delay by reminding Republicans of their tone-deafness. “He’ll be the first Cuban-born judge to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (Vt.) said, standing alongside a poster of the nominee. Leahy complained that if the biblical Moses were nominated, there are “some on the other side who would demand to see Moses the Lawgiver’s birth certificate to make sure he wasn’t born in Kenya.”

Republicans should be sensitive to the tweak. The party’s presidential candidates have done long-term damage by vowing opposition to the DREAM Act (legalization for illegal immigrants who serve in the armed forces) and by trying to paint each other as too soft on immigration (highlighted by Herman Cain’s call for a lethal electric fence). Rubio and Jeb Bush have called for an end to what Rubio called “harsh and intolerable” rhetoric.

The Hispanic population is expected to double — to 30 percent of the United States population — in the coming decades. So if Latinos continue to vote 2-to-1 for Democrats, the Republican Party will become irrelevant. Zoltan Hajnal of the University of California, San Diego, an authority on racial politics, sees a parallel with the Republicans’ alienation of African Americans in the 1960s. “The image of the party is pretty clear to most Latinos,” he said, “and once party images are built, they get passed on from parent to child in a process that’s very resistant to change.”

The party simply can’t afford self-inflicted wounds such as the Jordan debacle. “He’s an integral part of our community,” Rubio told his colleagues.

But Republicans didn’t care enough about that to stand up to Paul. Through the “debate” on the nomination, one senator after the other came to the floor — and ignored the delay.

Some spoke about transportation. Others spoke about the budget. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) spoke about the wonders of his state. “The lettuce in your salad this month almost certainly came from Arizona,” McCain said. “It’s also believed that the chimichanga has its origin in Arizona.”

The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...UER_print.html

[Ky-Fi]

Why can't they offer them lettuce, as well? Is that author implying Latinos would only eat the chimichangas and not the lettuce? Is his precious lettuce only for highfalutin Anglos?

[wishbone]

And hungry!

[Dr Mabuse]

Originally Posted by Thor Simpson

Exactly. It's the author who is making this about Latinos. Now I'm starting to get pissed off myself!

[Thor Simpson]

Oops. I want my post back.

Exactly. It's the author who is making this about Latinos. Now I'm starting to get pissed off myself!

[Dr Mabuse]

Wow... that whole thing that just happened there, was weird.

[Thor Simpson]

If the guy had said "Fried Chicken? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer blacks" it would not be tolerated.

[Pizza]

Can't we all just be considered American in America? We should all look at ourselves as one great nation, one brave group united together for all time. Of course then we go crazy when a chimichanga is put up for grabs and it's every man for himself. Seriously, I would think every American deserves his own chimichanga. Hell, I'll take two.

[starman9000]

Pizza has a dream. Sing it brother!

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by Pizza

Can't we all just be considered American in America? We should all look at ourselves as one great nation, one brave group united together for all time.

No! I'm an English-French Canadian-German-Scottish-Iroquois-American, and I won't have you belittling and dismissing my ethnic heritage so that you'll feel safe and comfortable in your buttoned-down, plastic-fantastic "American" squaresville, man!

[Thor Simpson]

I bet English-French Canadian-German-Scottish-Iroquois-Americans love chimichangas as much as the next guy, though.

This could be a teachable moment.

Chimichangas at the white house?

[X]

The chimichanga was one of the best things about Arizona and probably the thing I miss the most.

[wishbone]

Originally Posted by starman9000

Pizza has a dream. Sing it brother!

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by Thor Simpson

I bet English-French Canadian-German-Scottish-Iroquois-Americans love chimichangas as much as the next guy, though.

This could be a teachable moment.

Chimichangas at the white house?

I'm not big on the deep-fried stuff, but I'll take a burrito.....and a tequila flight sampler...mmmmm.....

[wishbone]

[Pizza]

Originally Posted by Ky-Fi

No! I'm an English-French Canadian-German-Scottish-Iroquois-American, and I won't have you belittling and dismissing my ethnic heritage so that you'll feel safe and comfortable in your buttoned-down, plastic-fantastic "American" squaresville, man!

It's still only one chimichanga up for grabs no matter the number of ethnic heritages you have. Actually, I'm going to settle for a burrito and head over to Chipotle for dinner.