Arnold Speaks [sonnet]
Forgive me if I said you are a babe
it was a rather vapid way to speak
I'm trying really trying to behave
alas my discipline was rather weak
my good Teutonic blood I aim to marshal
my every utterance shall be P.C.
my bonhomie has been a bit inertial
and yet no racial slur was that from me
I said the Cubans and the Puerto Ricans
are passionate by nature through the mingling
of African with Spanish traits? Mohicans'
finale stands before you blithely tingling
I am the man who accidentally uttered
taboo remarks no dog would dare have muttered
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Riffing on the media brouhaha apt to emerge from the perceived (or so-called) gaff (in the form of a notably cordial and decent off-the-cuff remark) reported by the Los Angeles Times as having been made by the Governor of California (who has, in this connection and in this particular instance, my decided sympathies). Vide: Schwarzenegger Apologizes Over Remarks (New York Times)
posted by david raphael israel at 12:50 AM
1 Comments:
considering the NYTimes site requires registration, I guess I'll paste in here text from the relevant (above-linked) news report; below is the first 2/3 or so of it.
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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 8 — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apologized today for saying during a closed-door meeting that Cubans and Puerto Ricans are naturally passionate because of their combination of “black blood” and “Latino blood.”
The ad-lib comments were captured on tapes recorded during a March speechwriting session between the governor, a Republican who is seeking re-election, and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, when the two spoke of their shared affection for State Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia’s passionate legislative style.
“I mean Cuban, Puerto-Rican, they are all very hot,” the governor says on the recording. “They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.”
The Los Angeles Times, which obtained a tape of the remarks, reported about them today, and thus ensued a by-the-book narrative of an embarrassing gaff revealed during a heated gubernatorial campaign.
Early today, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s Democratic opponent in November, Phil Angelides, released a statement chastising the governor. “Once again, Governor Schwarzenegger has used language that is deeply offensive to all Californians and embarrassed our state,” he wrote. “His comments reflect a disturbing pattern of behavior. The governor has a responsibility to conduct himself with dignity.”
But Ms. Garcia, a Republican and an ally of Mr. Schwarzenegger, responded with her own remark.
“The only embarrassment in California today is Phil Angelides’ sad and predictably partisan statement,” she said in a statement distributed by the Schwarzenegger campaign. Soon, black and Hispanic lawmakers were issuing news releases, some saying they didn’t care for the statement, others said there was nothing wrong with it.
Perhaps anticipating a weekend of busy blogging on the matter, Mr. Schwarzenegger called an unusual late-afternoon news conference in Sacramento with Ms. Garcia to make the ultimately political apology, in which the candidate laments anyone taking his remarks the wrong way.
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