A small group of Congressman Doug Lamborn's 5th District Southern Colorado  constituents met with him Friday to voice their displeasure over the Senator's use of the term "Tar Baby" with reference to the president's economic policies. The congressman gamely played the piñata as the group lectured him, at times crossing the line between holding Lamborn accountable for what he said into speculation about why he said it. Making a case for what a person was thinking when they said something is a slippery slope. This was, essentially, a roomful of preachers, whose very calling relies on our right to free speech, a right that is eroded when we start policing the thoughts inside someone's head. Was Mr. Lamborn being disrespectful to the Office of the President? Sure, but that's the political status quo these days. Was he being racist? That depends on what he was thinking when he reached for that specific simile, and only Doug Lamborn could possibly know that. There is no apparent pattern of Mr. Lamborn issuing intolerant or racist statements directed at the president. If Mr. Lamborn is, indeed, a fire-breathing Obama-Hating racist, he’s really bad at it.

Not one word was mentioned at Friday's public flogging

of Colorado 5th District Congressman Douglas Lamborn about Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn's recent remarks, claiming Obama's "intent is not to destroy, his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him. As an African-American male," Coburn said, Obama received "tremendous advantage from a lot of these programs." This was worth mentioning as an example of how utterly out of touch many political figures are with the black community, and how harmful that insensitivity can be. The Senator is presuming Obama's race created certain advantages for him and assumes the president is the beneficiary of affirmative action by virtue of his skin color. Coburn, who was actually defending the president against histrionic, over-the-top, hate-tinged criticism, actually meant well, but came across sounding like a racist. The comment and the assumption were both terribly hurtful. Was Barack Obama the beneficiary of affirmative action? I can't speak to every detail of the president's history, but what we are aware of is Barack Obama was an outstanding student and a dedicated community activist. I am unaware of any culture of dependency the president has embraced or of his somehow having benefitted from. I am reasonably certain the Senator began with the best of intentions, but started improvising and thus allowing race-based presumption—that people of color could not possibly rise to the level Obama has without some form of affirmative action—to pollute his otherwise laudable dash across party lines in the president's defense.

Congressman Lamborn was not defending the president when he compared involvement with President Barack Obama's economic policies to, "...being stuck to a tar baby..." but I am not convinced he was personally attacking or even disrespecting the president, either. I think the congressman said something dumb. That should have been his public statement on the matter: "I said something dumb and insensitive. I behaved like an idiot and I apologize." This seems to be the lesson politicians never learn. Early in his term, the president admitted, "I screwed up," when he abruptly abandoned his nomination fight for Tom Daschle and a second major appointee who failed to pay all their taxes. This was a shot heard 'round the world and the most convincing sign that change had indeed come to the White House. One of George W. Bush's most pervasive negatives was his inability to admit a mistake. Obama's impressive humility wowed us, but we've not heard those words again. I'm sure somebody in his communications office scolded the president over that choice of words. The pros are wrong, the president was right: admitting you are human goes a long way with the public.

This Is Not New: The Tar Baby in political cartoon about Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's decision
to appoint former state attorney general Roland Burris to the Senate seat being vacated by Barack Obama.

Congressman Lamborn's remarks have, however, accomplished what I've long considered impossible: a sense of unity and purpose in the black church community, here. The congressman, whose remark I received as flip and unscripted rhetoric, has faced scathing criticism over the term's racist subtext. Even if the president were not black, "Tar Baby" is an offensive racial slur which would offend many of Lamborn's constituents. That the term was juxtaposed to criticism of (if not directed at) the president only compounds the clumsiness of the congressman's unfortunate rhetorical direction. Whether intended or not, the remark can and likely will be received as revelatory of Lamborn's character, suggesting the congressman is at least tolerant of such racial disparagement. This serves only to reinforce racial divisions between conservative rural Coloradans and the growing black and Latino communities here.

The heated political climate, grown progressively more toxic since Obama's 2008 election win, has created an atmosphere of acceptance of increasingly naked racism, mostly on the part of conservative Republicans and so-called Tea Party members. This is now what passes for normal in Washington: conservative well-off white guys finding as many creative ways to call the sitting president nigger as they can possibly manage. Obama hatred sells, it is in season. The black community routinely does nothing, Obama himself does nothing. There is simply no political price to pay.

As demonstrably incompetent and divisive as President George W. Bush was, the rhetoric directed toward him never reached anywhere near the fever pitch of vileness, incivility and hatred which is routinely directed toward this president. It is in this dank atmosphere that the politically correct gloves come off, with openly and unapologetically racist rhetoric being hurled about at will and going all but completely unchallenged. Never in the history of our nation has a sitting president been treated with less respect and with such brazen and open hostility.

But this is not Doug Lamborn. My racist radar doesn't go off around Lamborn, but I do suspect he doesn't have a whole lot of black friends. He doesn't come across as someone even remotely familiar with his own African American constituents, which can also be our fault: this thing works both ways. I mean, I've never invited the man out for ribs or anything, and frankly, the black community here really has not, to my knowledge, paid Mr. Lamborn any attention at all except to criticize him for doing what everyone in that room has done at some point in their lives: spoken words we wish we could take back.

Then, Pat Buchanan said, ‘Don’t throw me in that briar patch,’ shortly before referring to the President as ‘boy.’ The terms stem from The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story and How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp For Mr. Fox, recorded by Joel Chandler Harris. ‘Tar baby,’ however, has evolved into a derogatory term when used in an insulting way. In fact, its connotation reaches so far and so far afield of its original definition that it’s difficult to say in conversation without whispering.  Just so we’re clear — I think Rep. Lamborn’s comment was offensive and intended to be offensive. Enough politicians have used the term (Mitt Romney & John McCain, for instance) that Lamborn knew the whirlwind of criticism and publicity he was entering. It’s shameless to insult President Obama through racist epithets and unfortunate to further hold America’s greatest folklore hostage [to] political rhetoric. (I’m less sure about Buchanan’s bumbling).”

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