Lou Dobbs Almost Calls Condi A "Cotton Picker"

Lou Dobbs visited Wolf Blitzer in the "Situation Room" on Friday and railed against Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for saying that race is still an issue in America because it was an American "birth defect."

Dobbs dismissed Rice's very notion, claiming race is no longer an issue in a society as diverse as modern day America. "The reality is, this is the most socially, ethnically, religiously, racially diverse society on the face of the earth," Dobbs said. "Now, Wolf, we don't make enough of that in the national media. We listen to some idiot say you can't talk about race."

Then Dobbs tripped over his words, as he declared, "Not a single one of these cotton...[stammering]...these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race."

Watch:

Comments

[dadw5boys]

Cotton Picker = Someone who clean lint from belly button -- I DO THAT!

[slow2]

dadw5boys,
Cotton Picker = a child, woman or man, old or young, who goes into a cotton field before sunrise, who stays until sundown, and picks cotton out of sharp bolls until a sack is filled. The heat is devastating and the work is backbreaking.

If you don't know what this kind of labor involves, perhaps you should just run out to the nearest truck farm and pick tomatoes or peppers all day, in the heat of the summer, and drag your 5 boys with you. Your conscience might be elevated, although your muscles would scream. Cotton picking, before automation, was a bit more difficult than flipping burgers, especially when you were forced to do it by white people who paid you pennies for your 10 hours in the field.

[mhoiles]

Now the mexicans are doing this work. Can we expect you to lobby on their behalh?

[KansasKowboy]

It sounds to me like he did that on purpose.

[Jacee]

Lou stopped himself people.

How come? If what he was saying was just fine, then why did he feel the need to stop himself? Lou doesn't exactly mince his words.

Can anyone that is defending poor Lou, of the Big Mouthed Lous, explain why he stopped himself mid slur?

[WomanInOrangeSweater]

Maybe because he realized that a lot of dough heads would miscontrue his word choice and would turn it into *the* issue in order to bolster their own agenda. You know, The same way some people did with Reverend Wright's words.

[Jacee]

Lou Dobbs, Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan went into a bar...

You finish the joke...

[Stefano]

Seriously? Sounds like this post is exactly what he was talking about. Its an expression I first learned watching cartoons, remember that one character, Fog Horn something or another from Bug Bunny, he said it all the time. Stop race baiting, this is pretty low of this post.

[SEQUOIABISON]

Lou Dobbs is a national disgrace and I am convinced a bigot.

CNN has deteriorated to a new low perhaps even further down the slime path than Fox, giving people like Glenn Beck a platform to spew their racist bigotry. I blame Ted Turner for being too greedy and selling out his balanced network to corporate trash.

[slow2]

Sequoiabison, didn't Turner FIRE Dobbs a long time ago and then Dobbs caused so much ruckus Turner rehired him, and groomed him into the mouthy jerk we see now? Dobbs and Beck are the bait to tempt the hardnosed FOX viewers over to CNN (which is basically the same now).

[Passenger57]

No way...Listen, I'm Black , and I despise Rice with every fiber of my being.Her very name conjures up images of scorpions,snakes, gila monsters,and Basphomet (Sorry, critters and goat devil creature).I think Rice should be in prison for what she did for her husb-I mean, boss Bush during 9/11 and Afghanistan,and Iraq.
But, a) what Rice said was remarkably sensible, and b) there is no way I took Dobbs' almost-comment to be racist. He likely censored himself because he was thinking ,"Oh, Lord,if I put a Black woman and 'cotton-pickin'' in the same sentence,I'm going to be called racist".

[ddc]

I agree. Instead of him saying f***ing politicians, he was going to say cotton-pickin' politicians, but quickly realized that he couldn't use that term in the same discussion he was having about a black woman and race issues. I learned the phrase "cotton-pickin" from watching cartoons back in the day (Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig (whose version is still the funniest thing you will ever hear a pig say)) as an alternative to dropping the f-bomb in front of my mother.

[Vixen0932]

thats kinda what i got from it as well

[SyracuseHorn]

Exactly. "Cotton pickin" is a G-rated version of "Mother F----ng". Once he tried going down that road, he realized what could be construed, and censored himself. It was not a racial comment, just an old-timey swear word that would have been misunderstood by young whipper snappers.

[slow2]

SyracuseHorn, Not.

I beg to differ about the connotation of the phrase. It's similar to the kind of language corruption and code words the Bushies use when their speech veers off into the fundamentalist and evangelical terminology. They know what they mean, and they know who laps it up. Men and women of Dobb's age understand exactly what they are saying; that's what they get paid to do and they do it; that is, keep these issues on the front burner by insults and innuendo.

Again, if you had seen pictures, read books, looked at the history of African slaves and 20th Century black people laboring in cotton fields you'd perhaps revise your understanding. Like the Confederate flag, like the sexist term "she asked for it" there are plenty of insults to go around. They need to cease.

[jinjinpinti]

As I recall, "cotton pickin'" was a common slang adjective used by Lou's generation and not based in racism. Lou uses it alot in regard to other people and incidents. That said, I can't tune Lou in anymore because he vows he is an Independent but he is really a closet Repub who is obviously opposed to the idea of a Dem POTUS. Regarding illegal immigration, his stance was odious to elite liberals and those financially unscathed by it, but he was right in pointing out that its continuance and escalation does have a deleterious effect on poor working class citizens of ALL races, particularly Blacks, and including legal Latino citizens. I will say in his defense that if you count heads (talking) by race, Lou has as many or more guests both Black and Latino as other shows.

[vallon]

I'm inclined to give Mr. Dobbs a pass on this one. But his shameless baiting on the illegal immigrant issue, which he rails against every night without offering solutions, has contributed to an upswing in violence against this group--and he doesn't seem to care.

[simplify]

Lou Dobbs is just another Rush Limbaugh in a suit. He is a buffoon and a windbag.

[tchristin]

I don't care that he almost said "cotton-pickin", my father picked cotton as a young boy - it's a southern way of speaking and is not racist. However, Lou Dobbs is out of control. I want to know why this man is allowed to spout his opinion for hours on national television. Who cares what Lou Dobbs thinks about anything? What makes him an expert on immigration or any other topic? I liked him so much better when all he did was read the news. He's becoming the subject of too many jokes and should consider retirement.

[kdjoins]

This is so stupid. HuffPo you have no shame.

[specultr]

Not stupid at all. He's proven himself to be a racist against Mexicans. He's an old Texas bigot. We have a lot of them down here. Now he denies racism is even a problem or that C. Rice's opinion has any merit because she's a cotton-picking politician. He'd probably like to add "shuck and jive" and "call a spade a spade" in there too.

[WomanInOrangeSweater]

Isn't is racist to assume that Dobb's stand against illegal immigrants makes him anti-Mexican? Why do you assume all Mexicans are illegal? That's disgusting. There are millions of legal mexican immigrants in the US (including MR. Dobb's wife) and you have unfairly painted them as illegal. How bigoted of you.

[CountryOver]

Give the man a break.
People say "cotton-pickin'" in place of "f--ing" all the time. He seemed to realize it would be totally inappropriate in that instance at the last moment.

[Riemann]

"Wait one cotton-pickin minute!"

Have you not wondered where the term "cotton-pickin" comes from?

[Jacee]

Lou stopped himself mid-slur.

Why? He obviously knew what he was about to say was 'off color'. Otherwise he would have said it. Not like old Lou minces his words.

[kwahlin]

why can't we all just get along...without lou dobbs...end the drama, vote obama.

[Rocky4356]

Diverse where in our schools our churches our jails. Where is lou talikng about we are diverse at. Hope he is not talking about Sunday Morning. Does anyone ever tell anyone talking about the what Hitler did to shut up.

[957]

Huffington post trying to make something out of a nothing story again.