Nope! But he was inelegant enough to make it appear that way if you’re willing to distort his words and cynically ignore the entire context in which they were spoken. At yesterday’s Wall Street–reform conference-committee hearing, Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski says the following:
The reason I … have fought for this program isn’t because we’re trying to give relief to people that aren’t responsible, that don’t know what the hell they’re doing, or don’t care what they’re doing. We’re giving relief to people that I deal with in my office every day now unfortunately. But because of the longevity of this recession, these are people and they’re not minorities and they’re not defective and they’re not all the things you’d like to insinuate that these programs are about these are average, good American people.
Obviously — and it’s even more clear in the video — Konjarski is saying, accurately, that some people have claimed that “minorities” are one group that has acted irresponsibly and don’t deserve government assistance, but that this bill isn’t focused on helping them. The contrast with “average, good American people” is a little awkward, but judge for yourself whether Konjarski has actually claimed “that minorities are not ‘average, good American people,’” as Konjarski’s opponent says. Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, for his part, would really like the media to cover this “more newsworthy” story instead of Joe Barton. We bet you would! It’s really embarrassing when someone says something that dumb deliberately!
Democratic Congressman: ‘Finance Bill will Help Good Americans, Not Minorities or Defective People’ [Human Events via Hot Air]
