You'll Never Guess

(TW: racism)

Guess what, everyone? Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-eally?) apologized, via a letter to the White House, for calling President Obama a "tar baby."

More guess what: It's a non-apology "apology" pile of garbage!

In an email, Lamborn spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen wrote, "Congressman Lamborn regrets any misunderstanding. He simply meant to refer to a sticky situation or quagmire.”

Oh, of course. He didn't mean it THAT way. Sure.

Monday evening, Lamborn's office sent a news release saying he had "sent a personal letter to President Barack Obama apologizing for using a term some find insensitive." The release said Lamborn is "confident that the President will accept his heartfelt apology."

How lovely. First, casually dismiss perfectly understandable outrage over use of a very racist term, because only "some" find it "insensitive." I'm sure they're in the minority, ahem. Then, essentially corner the President into accepting your apology, lest he look like a vindictive asshole. Oh, and let's have a little "who's the real victim here?" for good measure.

Ricker's comments were immediately dismissed as "cheap political shots" by Eli Bremer, chair of the El Paso County Republican Party. Bremer said Lamborn's statement was being taken out of context, and was not at all intended as a reference to Obama's skin color.

"It's disgraceful that anyone would try and insinuate that he was being racist," said Bremer. "I think there are people out there who believe it is a racist term, but what’s important is not how people construe it but how it’s intended. It’s really unfair to take something completely out of context and try to politically destroy them because of it."

Offended by Lamborn's statement? You only think "tar baby" is a racist term, and you're being disgraceful. The real victim here is Lamborn, because all of us hyper-sensitive meanies are calling him out on his description of a "sticky situation."

Shame on us, I guess.

(Tip of the energy dome to Liss. Bolds mine.)