Peter Schorsch
Earlier this year, a Florida GOP lawmaker made an immature, offensive, possibly racist comment on Twitter about two black legislators.
Meanwhile, another Florida GOP lawmaker told a gathering of Republican activists that the key to defeating Corrine Brown, a black Jacksonville Democrat, was to boost the number of black prisoners in her north Florida congressional district.
Guess which lawmaker received the most sh*t in the first hours after their offense was reported?
If you guessed it was the Republican who outlined a plan to disenfranchise thousands of voters rather than the Republican who simply said something patently stupid, you’d be wrong.
In the hours after Matt Gaetz let loose his controversial tweet, he received criticism from all corners, including members of his own party such as House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and state Sen. Jack Latvala.
It’s been hours since POLITICO Florida’s story about Janet Adkins’ comments during a closed-door meeting of the North Florida Republican caucus broke – and all I’m hearing are crickets.
Read again what Adkins said.
“You draw [Brown’s seat] in such a fashion so perhaps, a majority, or maybe not a majority, but a number of them will live in the prisons, thereby not being able to vote,” said Adkins, referring to black residents.
That’s something you’d expect to hear out of apartheid era South Africa.
Adkins knew how dastardly her comments were, that’s why she asked the group, “Are there any reporters in here?”
This is not to condone what Gaetz tweeted, but let me tell you bloggers and Tweeters and everyone else with an opinion, if you had something to say then about Matt Gaetz, you better have something to say today about Janet Adkins.
What Gaetz did was only about words; what Adkins talked about is some sticks-and-stones bullshit.
Flame away!
