Posted on 10/23/2006 3:22:55 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Democratic U.S. House candidate Steve Kagen apologized Monday for commenting that he was late for a meeting on an Indian reservation because "we're on Injun time."
"I did not mean any harm by my words and I humbly apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent," he said in a statement hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee released a tape recording of the comment.
Kagen attended a meeting Friday on the nearby Oneida Reservation and at his next stop in Green Bay he made the following remarks:
"Appreciate getting here almost on time. Our excuse in Oneida was, well, we're on Injun time. They don't tell time by the clock. Our excuse here is that I am a doctor and that we're never on time."
Kagen, a 56-year-old Appleton doctor, is involved in what political observers call a very close race against Republican John Gard, a 43-year-old veteran state lawmaker, for the two-year seat in District 8 in northeast Wisconsin. The two are seeking to replace GOP U.S. Rep. Mark Green, who is running for governor.
District 8 has one of only 29 open House seats in the country, making it a prime target for Democrats who need to pick up 15 seats on Nov. 7 to gain control of the 435-member House.
Kagen's spokeswoman Stephanie Lundberg said he heard the term "Injun time" used by Native Americans.
"I don't know if he was trying to be funny. It was in the context of a self-deprecating comment," she said.
Bobbi Webster, a spokeswoman for the Oneida Nation, said Monday that Kagen's comment was not being taken as disrespectful by tribal members. No apology was sought, she said.
"Tribal members say that themselves. It is not uncommon to hear somebody come in late and say, 'Oh-Oh. I am running on Indian time.' The time you get there is the time to do your thing," Webster said.
The term "Injun" also is not necessarily disrespectful, she said.
"If I thought an individual was trying to be disrespectful, then I might think about it in that term," Webster said. "But if I thought a person was trying to be funny, then I might enlighten him and say, 'You know, I know what you are trying to do but you may want to just say it a little differently.'"
Kagen and Gard were on the reservation Monday for a debate, and no tribal members brought up the "Injun" comment, Webster said.
"We were laughing about all the calls we got today in regard to the Indian time comment and we said. 'My God, aren't they interested in what the issues are all about? The health care. The education. The jobs,'" she said.
An Indian in South Dakota was less forgiving of Kagen.
Bruce Whalen, a Republican seeking election to the U.S. House in South Dakota's only district, called Kagen's remark a "racist comment" that insults Native Americans everywhere, according to a statement released by the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Whalen, a member of South Dakota's Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, demanded that Kagen apologize.
DUmocrats....always have an over-abundance of excuses.
Will this be played to the extent of Nguyen in California and the letter to Hispanic voters? Not holding my breath...
Never mind . . .
I was in the airport in Mexico City a few years back and asked an employee when a ticket counter would be open. "30 minutes," he said and then added "Mexican time," and grinned.
Maybe the search engine is on Injun Time too.
-PJ
"I did not mean any harm by my words and I humbly apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intent," he said in a statement hours after the National Republican Congressional Committee released a tape recording of the comment. "
How courageous!!
On the old Lou Grant TV show, the character, Joe Rossi used the term, Indian Time to explain to the police who wanted to move the old indian chief away from the sidewalk where he was blocking traffic; and Ed Asner as Lou Grant took up the old indian's cause.
They don't come any farther to the left than Ed Asner.
You pale-faces are all alike.
So, if it concerns Native Americans, no problem ?
Blacks often use the "N" word with one another - but what happens when a "honkey" uses it???
Always seems to be double standards when it's a democrat's versus republicans or Native Americans versus ANY other ethnic group.
American Indians are still considered all but invisible in this country - the U.S. Congress even once ruled them as aliens...How many more years, I wonder, before the country gets over it's stupid mass-guilt, which results in blaming everything on the Native Americans, accepts the truth for both sides and gets on with it?
In early colonial times, for a funny example, the Indians found it comical that the white man needed a clock to tell him when he was hungry...instead of just eating when he was hungry, as the Indian did.
Gard is going to eat this guy's lunch. This district is solidly Republican.
_;o)
I sure hope not...
That's great to hear! I used to live in Green Bay. I'm in Washington County now, one of the most conservative counties in Wisconsin. Now, if the media would cover this like it was a republican...... 'holding my breath.'
It's not like he called them WARRIORS or anything. Now there's something to be upset about!
Faux outrage is a very selective thing.
Democratic U.S. House candidate Steve Kagen apologized with some beads and cheap whiskey.
Even though he's getting a taste of the foul medicine his party regularly foists on Republicans, I have to say this is one of the rare occasions on which I sympathize with a Rat.
As for our guy in South Dakota who condemned him: Shut up with the PC crap. Just run your own race.
It's ok....he just called them Injuns....he could have called them warriors. Now THAT would have been insensitive.
More insensitive slurs. Did you mean to say "wampum and fire-water"?
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