Don’t get me wrong — if it were me I wouldn’t have used the word and I do find it offensive, but apparently not as much as others…
It’s not too often that Illinois political journalist Rich Miller calls for a political insider to be fired, but he is today saying that whoever demanded the re-write of a recent Obama Camp attack memo against Sen. Clinton needs a pink slip. And of course the Illinois Review picked up on it right away (though I was pleasantly surprised to see it was Greg Blankenship’s level head rather than more of the same Obama-is-Evil-Incarnate from Fran Eaton — I agree, it is too early for this).
The bugger for Mr. Miller is apparently the memo’s use of “Punjab” which can certainly be as derogatory as the word “macaca” when used in a demeaning context (which we now all know helped take down Sen. George Allen, R-VA, last year). In fact, Mr. Miller goes so far as to say that this may be Obama’s “Macaca Moment”. Now whether he firmly believes that or he just liked the alliteration I can’t say. But the attack memo (the text was obtained by The New York Sun) is indeed entitled: “HILLARY CLINTON (D-PUNJAB)’S PERSONAL FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL TIES TO INDIA.”
But the differences between a campaign using “Punjab” in a memo and Allen actually calling a fellow “Macaca” to his face are huge.
For one, there is no record of racism in Sen. Obama’s background. Unlike former Sen. Allen, he wasn’t hanging the Confederate flag, running around calling people n!%%3®$ and making sure they knew their place, putting chopped off animal heads in a black family’s mailbox or happily taking pictures and cavorting with known racists and white supremacists.
For another, Sen. Clinton herself said she could be the Senator from Punjab. The Obama campaign didn’t make it up. They weren’t trying to imply a slur. The context is that she used the word to describe herself, after one of her own supporters also did, and the Obama campaign used it against her. From the memo:
Sen. Clinton (D-Punjab) Joked That She Was Senator From The Punjab Region In India. “At the fundraiser hosted by Dr Rajwant Singh at his Potomac, Maryland, home, and which raised nearly $50,000 for her re-election campaign, Clinton began by joking that, ‘’I can certainly run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily,’ after being introduced by Singh as the Senator not only from New York but also Punjab.” [India Abroad, 3/17/06]
In essence, all the memo is doing is a little political jujitsu — turning a strong source of support and donations against Sen. Clinton by using her own words and claim. She was the one who said she could be the Senator from Punjab, the Obama campaign took her up on it to illustrate their point.
And their point, of course, is to highlight Sen. Clinton’s coziness with outsourcing interests in India, and their own quid pro quo commitment to supporting her campaign monetarily. Interestingly, The New York Sun has also been looking into Sen. Clinton’s zealous pursuit of donations from Indian-Americans (she is co-chair of the Senate Indian Caucus, and that’s not the Native American “Indian”).
As the Sun notes, organizations opposed to offshoring practices have been going after Sen. Clinton for some time. In light of that and the current two-term Republican administration telling us outsourcing American jobs is a good thing … this memo is actually an effective piece. It’s short for: ‘Do you want more of the same, or something different?’
Mr. Miller’s final points are that Sen. Obama has said he and his campaign would be above politics-as-usual. He already gave a verbal slap on the wrist to one of his campaigners after the Geffen fundraiser event a few weeks back. It remains to be seen what he’ll do here, but Mr. Miller’s point is well taken. There are other ways to say that Sen. Clinton is cozy with outsourcing American jobs that don’t involve using (D-Punjab)…
In fact, I believe a certain candidate 3 years ago used the term “Benedict Arnold Corporations” for those “American” companies that moved their “headquarters” to an offshore address to avoid taxes. I don’t think there’s a trademark on that phrase.
But Mr. Miller is over-reacting. Plain and simple.
(UPDATE: Clarification — it is abundantly clear from the context of the very-well-referenced Obama campaign memo that the use of the word “Punjab” was not meant in a derogatory manner, but rather as a mockery of something Sen. Clinton and her supporters joked about themselves … unlike Sen. Allen’s use of the word “Macaca” which clearly was intended as a racial slur and fit into a pattern of under-the-radar racism found throughout Mr. Allen’s lifetime. While the word “Punjab” could be taken as offensive in a different context, in this case it’s simply a reference to something Hillary said of herself last year while reveling in the support of a group of outsourcing interests, one of whom had originally made the reference to Sen. Clinton representing both the Punjab region and New York state.)
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 16, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Rich Miller
There is certainly no record of over-the-top racial or xenophobic smears by Obama himself, but there is with at least one guy on his staff, who my sources say was the one who rejected the original Punjab piece and then ordered it massively toughened up.
More here, here and here. That ought to take care of your Macaca qualms. If they had called her “Hillary (D-Harlem)” or “Hillary (D-Chinatown)” it would have been no different, regardless of any mild throwaway joke she might have made about herself. The fact that Punjab has been used as an ethnic/racial slur just makes it worse, regardless of the intent.
As I pointed out on my blog, Obama has pledged not to employ opposition research in “ad hominem” attacks on his opponents or use OR to “suggest that they have untoward motives.” I would point out that both of those attributes are clearly present in the OR memo in question.
Even the campaign itself says it now “regrets the tone” of the unsigned piece, which was clearly disgusting to my eyes. BTW, Atrios called the memo “stupid and false Drudgey shit.”
I stand by my posts on this matter. It was not an overreaction.
June 17, 2007 at 10:05 am
robnesvacil
Robert Gibbs has a history of being a mudslinging, internecine ass. Were he on the other side of the aisle he’d fit in well with Atwater’s inheritors like Rove and the gang (yes, I know Atwater’s dead).
But your links to posts about Gibbs do not indicate he is racist, just slimey and fear-mongering. Perhaps I see more of a difference between blatant xenophobia and rank fear-mongering — shades of gray I s’pose.
As to your comments about “D-Harlem” or “D-Chinatown” it would have to depend on the context and I don’t think this context fits the bill you’re looking for. I actually wrote 90% of a post yesterday and haven’t have time to finish it yet but in it I use the analogy that “D-Punjab” in this case is akin to the Obama camp using “D-Idaho” … What they’re saying in the memo is that Sen. Clinton’s loyalties are torn between New York (the state she was elected to represent in the upper chamber of the United States legislature) and outsourcing interests in Punjab, India (or Wherever, India) who benefit from her support.
Whether the campaign considers that an “untoward motive” or simply a bad thing that they wanted to point out, I dunno. Rationalizations could abound.
The middle portion of your comment makes more sense. If Obama is truly going to ‘rise above politics as usual’ then he had no business bringing Gibbs on board given his history, let alone keeping him (esp. after the Geffen funder incident indicated that tiger hadn’t changed its stripes). Perhaps it’s a keep your enemies closer type thing, but Gibbs is clearly not just a silent partner being kept in a back room. If he had been brought on board simply to keep him out of Obama’s hair (no pun int.), then he would’ve been stuck with busywork.
Finally, you’re conflating memos with regards to your quote of the Atrios comment. Atrios wasn’t talking about the Indian outsourcing memo. Instead, that Eschaton post dealt with a different Obama campaign attack regarding a Bill Clinton speech to Hong Kong firm CLSA, Ltd. This particular attack was a completely inane lob if you ask me, since it had nothing to do with anything and was simply meant to tar a candidate’s spouse.
IOW, it was stupid Drudgey shit … and ultimately false since the Obama camp hadn’t bothered to look into this little thing called the International Date Line and simply took Hillary Clinton’s campaign disclosure forms at their word (it was 9/11/06 in Hong Kong when the speech-by-satellite aired, but it was the evening of 9/10/06 back home in NY where Pres. Clinton was ’speaking’).
Back to the point, if Gibbs is indeed the one ultimately responsible for the Punjab deal — fire him. He is in every sense of the phrase a ‘hired gun’ and he has a history of such BS that isn’t worth the cost. He’ll still find a job somewhere in no time, unfortunately.
But I still don’t think you’ve proven the reference to Punjab, taken in the actual context of the memo, was in any way racist. It was a ham-handed way of saying ‘Sen. Clinton is cozy with outsourcing, which costs Americans their jobs, which is a bad thing….’ or so the memo was trying to allude.
(And I think to myself: …And people wonder why I haven’t committed to one candidate over another yet…)
June 17, 2007 at 10:40 am
Politics ain’t beanbag, or cricket « Illinois Reason
[...] to make it more harsh, according to Rich Miller’s CapFax blog. [UPDATE: Rich Miller indicates he has sources telling him it was no middle manager, but was in fact Obama camp higher-up Robert Gibbs that [...]
June 19, 2007 at 3:35 pm
ArchPundit » Blog Archive » Something New
[...] Two There is certainly no record of over-the-top racial or xenophobic smears by Obama himself, but there is with at least one guy on his staff, who my sources say was the one who rejected the original Punjab piece and then ordered it massively toughened up. [...]