Posted on 04/13/2007 1:45:27 PM PDT by Cagey
TALLAHASSEE -- State Rep. Don Brown thought he was being "cute." His fellow Republicans in the Florida House had another word for it: racist.
Brown, a DeFuniak Springs Republican, apologized Thursday for sending an e-mail to his colleagues that noted the April 17 federal income tax deadline.
"Don't forget to pay your taxes -- 12-million illegal aliens are depending on you!" Brown wrote in a message to his colleagues on a state-issued email account.
What Brown meant as a joke wasn't interpreted that way. The strongest criticism came from his fellow Republicans -- Hispanics with large immigrant constituencies in South Florida.
The Florida Hispanic Legislative Caucus issued a statement saying it "took serious offense."
"It was wrong. It was offensive," said House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-Miami, the son of Cuban immigrants.
Rep. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, said the Brown e-mail showed "an ignorance as to the founding of both this state and our country. It deeply saddens me that this mentality still exists in what we consider to be a forward-looking government."
Rep. Juan-Carlos Planas, R-Miami, said Brown's remark was "not just racist on its face, but it's not true."
"It's that type of mentality that is prohibiting passage of a reasonable compromise immigration bill in Washington," Planas said. "As long as that festers, we're losing what the American spirit was all about."
A contrite Brown expressed regret. In a follow-up email, he wrote: "Please accept my sincerest apology."
"I wish I had not sent it out," Brown said in an interview. "I have apologized, and I will apologize again. In fact, I had not given it a whole lot of thought, which was my fault."
Brown added: "I did not think it through. It looked cute to me."
It's the second time in recent months that Brown has found himself at the center of controversy in the House.
In January, Brown, an insurance agent known for his outspoken style, was stripped of his chairmanship of the House Jobs & Entrepreneurship Council after he was one of only two lawmakers who opposed a major piece of insurance legislation.
My exact thoughts - I like your terminology.
Well, it's not the fault of the journalist. It's the Hispanic GOP legislators who viewed it as racist.
Thee are parts of Florida where the only language spoken is Spanish.
Exactly. We are at the start of a new McCarthyism. Led by Sharpton and Jackson, Rosie, and other assorted leftists.
Make no mistake, they are going after speech. Rush and others on the radio really need to watch out.
We live in a pretend world the PC crowd and news media has created.
My proudly displayed bumper sticker——
“Keep working, millions on welfare depend on you”
>>I see no reference to race in the above quote. Any reference to race must be inferred by the person reading the quote.<<
Which make the infer-er....racist.
On issues like these, I prefer to just throw it back in their face. Simply challenge them to prove that there are not people from every recognized race here illegally, and until that, pound sand.
If we followed the old European Origins quota system none of them would get in, and if we adopted a new World Proportional Selection quota system, few of them would get in.
There's really no reason whatsoever that Hispanics should get preferential treatment.
OK, I put my elephant earrings on today while I was doing taxes but I just took them off. Republicans have turned into such wuzzies I can’t stand it. grrrrrr
The only thing this legislator did was to apologize to the race hustlers. We need more “in your face” conservatives with spine, rather than the usual wimps. Never apologize; remember Don Imus.
He lied. It’s closer to 20 million than 12 million.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With more coming every day.
I would never apologise for telling the truth.
How many billions are we spending now for health and anchor babies. for the Illegals.
Stop apologising and tell the buttholes to wake up ans smell the Roses.,or the Tacos & Tortilla’s.
This is tiresome. I protest.
“12-million illegal aliens”
He did nothing wrong, it is the new Nazi’s if they do not want us to talk about it just make it a PC issue.
Before I read the article I knew that he was a Republican.
In the past few days the left has lowered the threshold for trapping conservatives in what they call “hate speech”.
Very soon this stalinism will be including opinions about the morality of certain life styles.
Oops, I forgot! It already is there (Gen. Pace!)
No, there are at least twice as many as that.
What’s the problem? His email was correct. 12 million illegals are depending on the taxpayers’ subsidizing them.
So, what is the problem with the email?
Racist against illegal aliens?
What race are illegal aliens?
I didn’t know that illegal aliens became a race.
I must have missed the memo.
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