Colo. lawmaker apologizes for 'tar baby' comments
Doug Lamborn Credit: US Congressman Doug Lamborn (L)/Getty Images
A Republican Colorado congressman apologized Tuesday after comparing President Barack Obama and his policies to a “tar baby.”
Rep. Doug Lamborn made the comments last week during an interview with a Colorado radio station while discussing the congressional talks to raise the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Lamborn apologized in a letter to the president.
“Even if some people say, ‘Well, the Republicans should have done this or should have done that,’ they will hold the president responsible,” Lamborn said. “Now, I don’t even want to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby, and you get it ... you know you’re stuck, and you’re part of the problem now, and you can’t get away.”
The remarks were interpreted by some to be racially motivated. In the comments section for the term “tar baby” on Merriam-Webster’s website, one poster wrote, “White America can try to act like U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn didn’t mean it that way... but WE KNOW BETTER!!!”
The Colorado Democratic Party chairman called Lamborn’s comments “ignorant” and “intolerable.”
The three-term congressman told the Denver Post that he did not mean to offend the president.
“If this is at all on his radar screen, I am sure that he will not take offense, and he’ll be happy to accept my apology because he is a man of character,” Lamborn said.
Out East: Mecox Bay Dairy, Kent Animal Shelter, Custer Institute & Observatory and local champagnes NewsdayTV's Doug Geed takes us "Out East," and shows us different spots you can visit this winter.
Out East: Mecox Bay Dairy, Kent Animal Shelter, Custer Institute & Observatory and local champagnes NewsdayTV's Doug Geed takes us "Out East," and shows us different spots you can visit this winter.
