Report of GOP senator's slur bizarre

San Antonio Express-News



Web Posted : 10/07/2003 1:59 PM



Just when you think you've heard it all about what lengths Texas Republicans will go to grab more seats in Congress, along comes another morsel that even a hungry mouse would consider damn hard cheese.

You followers of political fallout know the story: The Texas Legislature has held three special sessions, trying to deliver House Majority Leader Tom DeLay at least six new Republican seats from Texas.

This has cost the state millions of dollars, turned the Texas Legislature into a body of warring pit bulls and, lately, even set Republicans against one another.

For the most part, the entire soap opera — the 50 House Democrats who fled to Oklahoma in May to try to block Republicans, the 11 Democratic senators who later fled to Albuquerque — has played out in the full light of day.

Now comes news of a small encounter that took place behind closed doors that is so repellent it's almost impossible to believe — even in this season of sleaze.

San Antonio Sen. Leticia Van de Putte says that on Sept. 18, shortly after the Democrats returned from their 45-day exile in New Mexico, she was in the members lounge and approached a Republican senator with a question: "Why are you being so punitive?"

She asked the question moments after Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, had been warned that if she parked her car at the Capitol, it would be towed and after Republicans had placed the Democrats who fled on "probation." Any Senate Democrat absent more than 72 hours will face ,000 in fines, levied by the Republicans.

Van de Putte, who refers to herself as a "probationer" these days, refuses to name the senator to whom she posed the question. She says one of the rules of the Senate is that anything said in the lounge is privileged. However, she told the Express-News Editorial Board on Monday what the unnamed senator said.

According to Van de Putte, the senator looked at her and said, "If you are going to act like Mexicans, you will be treated like Mexicans."

It's difficult to imagine exactly what the senator could have meant, but it's hard not to read the term "Mexican" as a racial slur. In this day and age, its use is unconscionable. The meaning, at least to Van de Putte, was: If you're going to act like a second-class citizen, then that's the way you'll be treated.

The unnamed senator made the remark, according to Van de Putte, in the presence of Zaffirini and state Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, as well as four other Republican senators.

What's worse, she says that the four other Republican senators agreed. They nodded their heads and indicated that in 10 years the number of Mexican Americans will increase, but for now, Anglo Republicans have all the power — and they plan to use it.

If Van de Putte is correct, this means that five of the 17 Republican senators are Neanderthals who view the world through dangerous, racist eyes.

Why won't Van de Putte name names? She said she doesn't want to be accused of betraying the confidentiality of the members lounge, but she wants the public to know that it's not just Democrats who are playing the race card — the card is part of the entire redistricting deck.

Moments after that heated encounter, Madla lividly told a news conference: "The last time that I was treated the way we were today on the Senate floor, I think I was about 6 years old when I entered the first grade. I was a little Mexican boy who had his first taste of what white supremacy was about."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst widely criticized Madla for raising the subject of race. Dewhurst called Madla's remarks "simply cheap, distasteful, juvenile partisan spin."

Why didn't Van de Putte report the senator's slur at the news conference the day it happened? Why wait until now?

"I was startled," she said. Now she wants people to understand the context of Madla's remarks, as well as the context of the Senate's debate.

This is all too strange, even by Texas standards. As presiding officer, Dewhurst must take it upon himself to find out who made those remarks and publicly take him to task.

In the meantime, it looks as if we're headed to our fourth special session on redistricting. When, pray tell, will it all end — and at what cost?

jjarboe@express-news.net

If you're going to act like Mexicans, you WILL be treated like Mexicans.

Is this the same socialist congresswoman who complained about WHITE legislators?

That's pretty rude, and I think he's a political zionist!