Posted on 03/07/2006 7:20:01 PM PST by BenLurkin
WASHINGTON (AP) California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, at a press conference on legislation to curtail food warning labels, used an expletive to refer to one of the bill's sponsors.
The remark was in reference to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., whose bill would stop states from putting warning labels on food that are different from federal warnings.
Lockyer read a quote from Rogers in which the congressman said a pregnant shopper in Michigan should see the same warning while buying peas as a pregnant shopper in California.
``What a dumbs---,'' Lockyer said.
``Sorry,'' he quickly added, to laughter from the room, including a half-dozen other attorneys general. ``But anyhow. All my colleagues disassociate with that remark.''
Lockyer added that perhaps he should have called Rogers a ``pea brain'' instead.
``It makes it pretty clear that the attorney general has a very limited vocabulary,'' said Rogers' press secretary, Sylvia Warner. ``He proved what we've been saying all along, that this has become more about politics than it is about policy.''
The House is expected to vote Wednesday to approve the bill, which Lockyer and others contend specifically targets California's voter-approved Proposition 65, the 1986 law requiring businesses to provide ``clear and reasonable'' warnings when they expose consumers to known reproductive toxins, such as mercury.
California has sued under Proposition 65 to enforce warnings about mercury in canned tuna, lead in Mexican candy and other potential hazards. State officials are concerned the House bill would overturn their ability to caution consumers about such dangers.
The food business, a major industry in California, wants consistent warnings across state lines to reduce the cost of making many different labels.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who has taken a lead role in opposing the bill, released a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday criticizing the governor for not speaking up about it.
``I realize there are tremendous demands on your time but, with all due respect, I think an issue that will pre-empt California's ability to safeguard the food Californians eat is more pressing than the Ohio women's body building and fitness competitions that the press reported you attended this past weekend,'' Waxman wrote.
Schwarzenegger's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It wasn't the first time one of Lockyer's remarks has raised eyebrows. During the 2003 gubernatorial recall he accused then-Gov. Gray Davis, a fellow Democrat, of practicing ``puke politics.'' Last year he said Schwarzenegger's leadership style had an ``odor of Austrian politics.''
I can only imagine the circus that would ensue if the N word was used by a Democrat at a congressional press conference. Republicans would ROFL and Democrats would race around breaking all video recorders within 600 yards.
What rock are you hiding behind? The call us Nazis all the time. ;)
Lockyer is a pig.
Careful, the swine will rise up and sue for defamation!
This is a state's rights issue. If Michigan doesn't want to warn their folks about lead or mercury, that's up to Michigan.
Lockyer was thinking of himself, aloud.
"The food business, a major industry in California, wants consistent warnings across state lines to reduce the cost of making many different labels."
The "food business"? Who wrote this slop? The whole article is a propaganda piece for the Dhimmicrats.
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