Michele Bachmann Joins the Tar Baby Hall of Shame

[Content Note: Racism.]

I cannot believe in the year of our lord Jesus Jones two thousand and twelve there are still Republicans using the racially loaded phrase "tar baby," but here it is, yet again:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) blasted President Obama following his proposed "crackdown" on firms found to be manipulating the oil market, saying he is "waving a tar baby in the air" as a distraction from high gas prices.

"This is just about waving a tar baby in the air and saying that something else is a problem," Bachmann said in an interview Wednesday with The Shark Tank, a conservative news organization that covers Florida politics. "I have never seen a more irresponsible president who is infantile in the way that he continually blames everyone else for his failure to first diagnose the problem and second to address the problem. It's always everyone else's fault."

She said her message for the president is, "Get over it," and stop blaming everyone else.

The term "tar baby" is a racially loaded phrase coined in the "Brer Rabbit" tales. The term generally means a "sticky situation," but has also been used as a derogatory term for a black person.

And naturally if you question the decency of using the term "tar baby" at all, no less in the middle of scolding our African-American president, then you're just an oversensitive hysteric looking for things to get mad about, etc.

Or maybe Rep. Bachmann will use Mitt Romney's strategy when he used the phrase in 2006 and claim to be "unaware that some people find the term objectionable." Ha ha great explanation. "I'm too privileged to know about things that offend black people!"

Other members of the Tar Baby Hall of Shame include: Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, Republican Rep. Tom Davis, Republican Senator John McCain, Republican White House Spokesperson Tony Snow.