Bill Richardson Used Word "Maricone" "Playfully"

Hmm... Didn't know a word meaning "faggot" could be used "playfully." Well, actually, I did know that, but I didn't think that claim would fly with the PC Police.

Will it fly for Richardson? Of course; he's a liberal. The media will not allow any macaca moments for the left.

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson said Thursday his use of a Spanish word that some contend is a slur against homosexuals was meant to be playful but apologized to anyone who was offended.

With critics revisiting the statement he made on a radio program a year ago, Richardson questioned the timing of their comments.

"My record is the strongest among the presidential candidates on gay rights issues and I'm puzzled by the timing of this. When it happened a year ago, nobody seemed to think it was terribly important. Now it surfaces," he told The Associated Press in an interview.

"It's probably a sign from other campaigns that they are little worried about me," he said.

Richardson, a Hispanic and the governor of New Mexico, was a guest on Don Imus' syndicated radio program on March 29, 2006. Imus, who later lost his job over making racial comments, jokingly said one of his staffers suggested Richardson was "not really Hispanic."

Richardson replied in Spanish that if the staffer believes that, then he is a "maricon."

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation says the word means "faggot" in Spanish.

In a statement this week, Richardson said that in the Spanish he grew up speaking, "the term means simply 'gay,' not positive or negative."

He told the AP on Thursday: "It was a playful exchange between me and Don Imus that was not intended to demean anybody, but if I offended anybody, I apologize."

So he's saying that people who doubt he's Hispanic are "simply 'gay,' not positive or negative"?

This is one of those deals, yet again, where I have to say none of this matters terribly to me, but if Coulter is to be pilloried for using the "F-word" (even a year later) and Democrats are still talking about "macaca," shouldn't Richardson face similar levels of outrage for "maricone?"

I look forward to the media's highly nuanced distinction-drawing here. Oh, wait -- that would be too difficult, too transparently biased, and would reveal them to be the bought-and-paid-for DNC operatives they are. So I actually expect them to never mention this prominently again.

posted by Ace at 12:50 PM

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