I thought I had seen everything. Then I watched this.
The Fox Business Channel had a session yesterday about whether the Post Office should be privatized. Among the guests were former Senator Alphonse D'Amato (R-NY) and a GOP strategist named Jack Burkman. Wikipedia says that Burkman is the:
founder and President of Burkman Associates, LLC, is a Washington, DC based political consultant and strategist.
Burkman is a former Fox News conservative political analyst who routinely appears on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, and others. He was a regular guest on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country."as well as a longtime guest on ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.
Burkman also appeared Judging a political debate between contestants for Beauty and the Geek
Jack M Burkman was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, moved to the Washington,DC area and attended Georgetown University of Law and today resides in Arlington, Virginia.
During the discussion, Burkman said that, "most of these guys working in the Post Office should be driving cabs, and I think we should stop importing labor from Nigeria and Ethiopia."
The host of the show smiled and did not intervene.
Former Senator D'Amato, of whom I have never been a fan, at first tried to keep his temper under control. He said, "Jack would've done well without all the name calling."
An attorney named Tamara Holder, another guest on the show, said, "Making all these somewhat racist statements about Nigeria is a spinning of sorts...this has to do with government waste."
Burkman replied: "Most people employed by the United States Post Office...are thoroughly unskilled labor."
D'Amato then went ballistic: "You are a nasty racist..that's a bunch of bullshit and you should be ashamed of yourself and have your mouth washed out."
Burkman tried to interrupt, but D'Amato would not let him get a word in edgewise. "Wait a minute...shut up. I listened to your racist bullshit."
The host was largely ineffectual. I am amazed that he let such garbage spew from the mouth of a guest and did not challenge it himself.
On the merits, Burkman compared the profit that Federal Express had made to the operating loss of the Postal Service. No one countered that that was comparing apples and oranges due to the Postal Service's statutory mandate to provide universal service. Tamara Holder even argued in favor of privatizing the Department of Homeland Security.
I got the strong feeling that, when he used the word Nigerians, Burkman was using that as a placeholder for another word with most of the same letters, with an extra g, and missing an i and an a and an n.
Unbelievable!