PM UPDATE: The Greeley Tribune’s Tyler Silvy updates, as the story of Rep. Lori Saine’s whitewash-y revisionist history goes to hell with a disturbing quickness:
Following media reports from across the state and beyond which focused largely on Saine’s lynching comments, Saine argued with constituents on Facebook and Tuesday morning appeared on right-wing radio host Jimmy Lackey’s show.
Lackey introduced the topic by saying reaction to Saine’s comments represent revisionist history, that kids were being taught about Martin Luther King Jr. by “union hacks” and that Colorado is now a segregated state. Lackey also referred, multiple times, to Gov. Jared Polis as “our gay, Jewish governor.” [Pols emphasis]
For the record his name is properly spelled Jimmy Lakey, morning conservative radio host of the relatively obscure AM600 KCOL radio, who we didn’t realize was such an unapologetic…well, you know! But we most certainly know now, and that ought to make the Republican officeholders who regularly appear on his show think twice–at least the ones smarter about managing their public image than Lori Saine.
In any event, if the intent here was to make Rep. Saine or any Republican look better, that was not the outcome.
—–
Less than 24 hours after you read it here first, the story of GOP Rep. Lori Saine’s wildly exaggerated estimate of white Republicans lynched following the American Civil War, made during a speech purportedly in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., has gone national–starting with the Greeley Tribune story we updated yesterday’s post with, then the Denver Post’s Anna Staver:
A Colorado representative from Weld County claimed blacks and white Republicans were lynched in “nearly equal” numbers following Reconstruction and chastised the main sponsors of a resolution honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day during a speech on the House floor Friday…
Saine, Buck and dozens of other House members sponsored House Joint Resolution 19-1006, which commemorated King’s birthday. It was introduced in the House by Reps. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, and Leslie Herod, D-Denver…[Rep. Herod] went on to characterize Buck’s brief floor speech on the resolution as both eloquent and in keeping with the spirit of MLK, but Herod said Saine’s remarks were “completely off base.”
“The lynching comment is extremely problematic, in the sense that it really does kind of take away and hide some of the dark past that this country has faced,” Herod said Monday. “And if we’re not honest about our history, if we don’t face our past, then we’ll never be able to move forward as nation and a country. And so her comments really sought, I think, to water down the realities of the march for justice and for civil rights.”
Saine said she delivered the comments with little preparation, based on things she’d read. She clarified that she meant only the earliest days of post-Civil War Reconstruction. However, the article Saine said she referenced is an amateur statistical analysis that looks at data from a later period and makes no reference to party affiliation.
From there…Newsweek:
Saine, a Republican representative, backed up her remarks on Monday, all in support of a white state representative who was shunned from introducing a resolution to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In her statement that was televised, Saine said whites were lynched more often than blacks “in the beginning,” and also acknowledged that blacks were collectively lynched at a far-higher pace over the next seven or eight decades.
Saine claimed whites and blacks were all lynched for the simple fact of being a Republican, which caught one college professor in the state off guard.
While lynchings of white, Hispanic and Native American people have taken place in the United States and Republicans were targeted during Reconstruction, evidence points to African-Americans being by far the greatest number of victims of lynchings, which were used as a tool for racial suppression.
And this morning, even FOX News is obliged to report:
According to the NAACP, nearly 73 percent of people who were lynched from 1882 to 1968 were black. Many of the white people who were lynched were being punished for helping black people, the NAACP said. It noted that many lynchings were not recorded.
The political affiliation of those who suffered this punishment was not recorded in the NAACP’s statistics. University of Northern Colorado professor Fritz Fischer said Saine’s assertion was incorrect.
“Blacks were lynched for the ‘crime of being black’ which obviously isn’t a crime – and not even close to equal numbers,” Fischer told The Greeley Tribune. “I suppose there were a certain number of blacks who were lynched who were Republican. But that was coincidental.”
With more stories going to print as we write, it won’t be long before everyone with even late-night talk show familiarity with current events hears about the Republican from Colorado who said white people were lynched as often as black people. The added insult of claiming lynchings of African Americans were for “the crime of being Republican” is not just inaccurate but a complete whitewash of the ensuing century of history, in which the Republican Party willingly morphed into the party of holdout Southern racism.
As for Rep. Lori Saine? This is hardly the first time she has shoveled shame on Colorado Republicans, having made national headlines for getting caught with a loaded handgun at a DIA security checkpoint in 2017, then introducing bills to weaken Colorado’s gun laws–not to mention underscoring Sen. Vicki Marble’s nationally infamous monologue about “problems in the black race” with heart disease by bringing fried chicken to the next hearing.
We’ve said it before: Lori Saine is a walking, talking disaster for the Republican brand.
So naturally, ALEC should give her another award.
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Even with their diminished ranks, the Colorado GOP has no shortage of people to cause them shame. Or should cause them shame.
Unfortunately should is the appropriate word in your sentence.
Oh. I know.
Thus illustrating the dangers of living inside the Bigot's Bubble… Reminds me of the old computer science acronym — GIGO — Garbage In, Garbage Out.
Yeah, it's unsurprising when you read the Daily Stormer that you dish up an MLK take that doesn't resonate with your audience like you thought it would.
Has anyone suggested to the esteemed Representative that maybe it’s best to look for reading material elsewhere, besides on the bumpers of pickups at the monthly Weld cross burnings????
Poor Lori.
I hope someone brought her some of her favorite fried chicken for lunch. . . .
. . . She’s gonna’ need all the strength she can muster over the next several weeks for explaining over and over how she’s, once again, being persecuted and is really the victim here.
She doesn't have the brain that God gave to an avocado pit.
I listened to Dr. Kings "Mountaintop" speech last night where he described the woman who stabbed him as demented. Ms. Saine fits the description. Unlike Gardner who knows it's a con, she really believes the voices in her head. And to think Republican voters re-elected this demented woman.
No, she may also be crazy, but she's a straight-up fucking racist.
Agree. Batshit crazy and a scummy racist are not incompatible qualities.
Right, GG. It's kind of like You want fries with that lynching?
. . . or, vice versa?
Is it really even sporting to make fun of Lori Saine anymore? Maybe we should start looking into the water quality in Firestone, or some other factor.
Perhaps we need to move on from, "Haw Haw! Lori Saine did something stupid again!" and consider, "Guys, I think there's really something wrong with Lori".
Looking at her electoral history on Ballotpedia she did not face a primary challenge in 2018 and she performed only a few points behind her 2016 results. The map of the district goes way out into the rural parts of Weld so maybe this sort of crazy plays well out there?
The overall general election results were a lower turn out in 2018 vs. 2016. She is also going to be termed out in 2020 so she either has to get out of politics or run for another office. If she actually lives in Firestone then she is in SD-23 which is held by Vicki Marble, also term limited out in 2020, IIRC.
I think there is a chance that she could be defeated by a strong enough Democrat or if unaffiliated voters get organized (hah!) into voting for a moderate Republican in the primary. Senate District 13 appears to be less Republican than House District 63.
It never really was "sporting," seeing as how making fun of Lori Saine is an activity that basically does itself. It's substantially easier than shooting fish in the proverbial barrel.
Anadarko has a ton of operations in and around Firestone. Ol' Lori could serve as living proof that living in proximity to oil and gas operations make ya stupid. 😀
Saine is term-limited in HD-63 come 2020. Racist shithead Vicki Marble is term-limited in SD-23 the same year. If Saine wants the job, I have little doubt that the stump-jumping troglodytes of SD-23 would be more than happy to send Saine back to the state legislature for another eight years.
In 2016 Marble won with 55,528 to 40,281. While it is a Republican district it also includes all of Broomfield. Depending on the skills of her opponent(s) in either the primary or general at highlighting this sort of behavior I think the voters of SD-23 electing Saine is not a forgone conclusion.
We Broomfielders voted for Dem. T.J. Cole (a Broomfielder himself) by a substantial margin in the last SD-23 election, but Marble won easily thanks to overwhelming support from the stump-jumpers up north. There are few true "foregone conclusions" in politics, but Saine winning SD-23 in 2020 (if she wants the job) is pretty goddamn close.
But hey, maybe she'll get caught on video desecrating a MAGA hat or consorting with black people between now and then.
You are right that the Democratic margin in Broomfield was not enough to overcome the huge numbers of Republicans in Weld in 2016.
However, I think there is reason to think it will be a lot closer in 2020.
Broomfield portion HD-33 2016
Dem18,099
Rep 15,516
Broomfield portion HD-33 2018
Dem 19,672
Rep 13,076
The Republicans lost 15% of their voters in Broomfield in two years. If the voters in Weld turn out for Republicans in SD-23 just like they did in 2016, yes, the Republican will win easily. IF. On the other hand if the Republicans are just as depressed in 2020 as they apparently were in 2018 I think it could be anything from 8% in favor of Republicans to a narrow win for Democrats. Instead of the 15% margin they got in 2016.
Curmie, we know what's in the water in Firestone, and in the soil, and seeping into people's houses (you know, the ones that go BOOM?). Maybe she is being poisoned by petrochemicals in the water, and it seems she’s not alone. Apparently, enough people in her district think as she does for her to have won an election.
Great photo. Makes her look like a morbidly obese insane asylum inmate.
Mike Littwin has a great column about her in the Colorado Independent. He starts off with a great quote that could describe quite a few Republicans (including our own Moldy/Reacharound)
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” — Martin Luther King Jr.