* When somebody is talking about race or ethnicity and makes it a point to say “I have friends who are…” you pretty much know where the rest of it is going. Candidates should really learn to shut up when they find themselves saying that line. Case in point, Congressman Bobby Schilling…
After talking about health care, Rep. Schilling, unprompted by the audience, said, “What about English as a second language? Can we agree on that? How come I got to learn Serbo-Croatian or whatever.” […]
“One of the biggest problems is, you know, I got some Hispanic friends is that, a lot of those folks that don’t know English, is primarily because they don’t even know Spanish,” Rep. Schilling said at a forum in Annawan. “So, they don’t even know their own language, so that’s why you’ve got these teachers coming in helping them to try and get them better with their own language and then kind of teach ‘em. It’s a pretty tough battle.”
Um, huh?
“How come I got to learn Serbo-Croatian or whatever”? What the heck is that all about?
Not to mention there are a whole bunch of Serbo-Croatians in that part of the world.
So, in one speech, he offended Slavs and Latinos and made himself look like a total doofus.
Great work, Congressman!
*** UPDATE 1 *** From Congressman Schilling’s office…
Listen to the whole audio file. There are two constituents asking questions and kind of talking amongst each other.
“And the term limits is something that… we can’t get on the ballot, that has to come from Washington…” - constituent 1
“No I understand, but could that be common ground is my question… And how about English as a second language, can we agree on that? How come I gotta learn Serbo-Croatian or whatever?” - constituent 2
Then Schilling responds.
The way it’s clipped, they sound similar, but the Serbo-Croatian thing is not said by Schilling.
*** UPDATE 2 *** I just talked to Terry Schilling, who said he was in the room at the time and he swears the Serbo-Croatian comment was made by somebody else.
[ *** End Of Updates *** ]
* The audio file…
* The defense…
“It’s not an offensive quote,” said Terry Schilling, Rep. Schilling’s campaign manager. “It’s simply stating a fact.”
Rep. Schilling did not mean to say that Hispanics could not speak Spanish, Terry Schilling said, but that “a lot of times people come to this country who aren’t up to speed with the grammar of their own language.” The problem was not confined to the Hispanic community, Mr. Schilling said.
It’s not an offensive quote, eh? OK. Stick with that.
* And this brings up the secretly recorded Mitt Romney speech that has the national media all atwitter. Romney talked about how 47 percent of the country will vote for President Obama no matter what because they’re… well… here’s the quote…
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.
* This is hardly new. It’s what the Right has been saying for years. For instance, today’s Illinois Review headline…
Romney was right - the 47% will never vote for him
* But this Romney quote from that secretly taped speech did catch my eye…
Describing his family background, he quipped about his father, “Had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot of winning this.”
Sheesh.
When are people gonna ever learn?
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:30 pm:
Illinois Review was only off by a few percentage points: more than 50% of Americans will never vote for Mitt Romney.
- train111 - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:34 pm:
The thing that gall’s me about Romney is the fact that for the last four years we have had to sit and listen to conservative pundits carp about how arrogant President Obama is.
These conservatives now need to look at this in a different light since they nominated and support a pompous a** who in his comfort zone is willing to write off half the nation’s peoples’ lives as worthless.
Arrogant huh?? Pot meet kettle!!!
train111
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:37 pm:
=== How come I got to learn Serbo-Croatian or whatever. ===
Was Congressman Schilling trying to be ironic? Because he clearly has not mastered English yet.
Maybe it’s his second language?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:37 pm:
“Look, some of my best friends …”
Think.
Think what you are going to say, then cut that in half. Take THAT half, and cut that in half …
- PublicServant - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:45 pm:
If Romney actually had been born of Mexican parents, he wouldn’t have said that…He also would most likely not be the Republican nominee for POTUS this election.
- Are you serious? - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:45 pm:
My family had been laughing about the irony of Mitt Romney’s dad being born in Mexico. Mitt Romney’s dad ran for president. Obama’s father was born in Kenya which we all know makes his citizenship questionable. In those tapes he also says that he and Ann gave away all their inheritance. Of course that was after Mitt was given a pair of pretty ivy league degrees and his first home when he and Ann married. But they built everything on their own. I’m absolutely sure having a governor for a father and an extremely prominent mother didn’t help at all. Mitt wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth….it was a silver foot!
- Liandro - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:57 pm:
Sorry Rich, I respect the heck out of your reporting, but this was a silly critique of Schilling. Is your criticism based on fact? What do you know of the Hispanic community? And if you don’t know much of the Hispanic community, fine…than what data are you basing this one?
I just (as in, past month) had an employee leave because he/she couldn’t speak English well enough to keep up. Problem was, when I started phrasing some of the things in Spanish, there were words he/she didn’t even know how to say in Spanish. I came to find out he/she had never even came close to finishing high school in Mexico. That lack of education made the transition even harder. I’m not sure this is something you run into a lot, especially with the cultural twists, Rich, but some of us have seen it.
As Bobby’s campaign said, this is NOT a shot at Latinos, it is a problem spread throughout immigrant communities. Third-world educations, no matter what the heritage, can be a problem when thrown into the American workforce. That’s not racist, that just common-sense, and it is something we have to deal with as we help people make the transition. Bobby’s phrasing may have been awkward, but so is this post. If anything, I think your post misses the point more than Bobby’s does. And, as a Latino, it bothers me that you blow right by that problem in your attempt to critique Bobby, whether that was your intent or not.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 12:58 pm:
It’s like Hitler….
It’s like being raped…
No, you know what is like Hitler? Hitler. Possible exception for Matt Hale, but that’s giving him too much credit and he thinks it’s a compliment.
Know what’s like being raped? Being raped. Just stop there.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:01 pm:
===As Bobby’s campaign said, this is NOT a shot at Latinos,===
OK, fine. I disagree, but for the sake of argument, let’s move along.
Now, please explain to me why he thinks he “got to” learn Serbo-Croatian and how that isn’t a supremely goofy statement.
I’ll await your reply.
- mokenavince - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:03 pm:
Fellas Schilling only speaks United States. Deal with it.
- Just Observing - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:08 pm:
The 47% stat is stupid for Romney to repeat — if that really is the case, he would need to win over like over 90% of the independent vote to win.
- Liandro - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:12 pm:
That part was unduly goofy, no disagreement here. Seems like something a candidate says to a “friendly” audience when caught up in the moment. And as I’ve said before, all the outrage over making English the “official” language is unnecessary. Every immigrant wave in history takes some time to fully join the culture; outrage doesn’t speed it up. My grandfather was a Mexican immigrant, yet (when not posting quickly on a blog) I speak and write English far better than most.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:18 pm:
=== “got to” learn Serbo-Croatian and how that isn’t a supremely goofy statement.
I don’t begrudge anyone making grammar errors while typing quickly or speaking off the cuff, but if you are going to complain about native speakers not knowing the appropriate grammar in their own language….
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:18 pm:
Rich, I don’t understand the comment either and so I can’t take a position on it.
However, based on experience, many Americans–who still maintain their ethnic traditions to varying degrees at home–but their “ethnicity” is no longer obvious in their “public” day-to-day lives, their acccents, associations, etc., are often pounced upon by ethnic groups for being “ashamed” of their ethnic backgrounds. It often seems to be a tactic to recruit them into some sort of “club” or “association” so that they can get in touch with their ethnicity once again and stop being ashamed of it.
Most are not ashamed of their ethnic backgrounds and they are not “hiding” them. It’s just that they now consider themselves and are perceived as Americans, because they are.
- Siriusly - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:19 pm:
Schilling campaign has the same problem as the Romney campaign. They rely too much on the candidate for the big speaking parts.
- Boone Logan Square - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:21 pm:
Schilling may have a point. From the quotes, there is absolutely no evidence that the Congressman can understand or speak English.
- MS - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:24 pm:
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”
Benjamin Franklin
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:28 pm:
I thought Romney was a lot better and a lot smarter than that. I have been proven very wrong in recent days.
That 47% comment is a filthy slur, as anyone who draws a paycheck or is self-employed knows. I thought only the knuckle-draggers on Fox were dumb enough to use it.
No working person gets out of paying FICA or Medicare taxes, which fund more than 40% of the federal budget.
When you get down to it, 18% of households paid no federal taxes, and most of those were seniors.
No one gets out of paying sales taxes. There are plenty of state and local taxes you can’t avoid.
Who thinks they’re victims? Romney voters.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2012/09/17/memo-to-mitt-romney-the-47-pay-taxes-too/
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:32 pm:
And I’ll add that I’ve unwittingly found myself in some social settings where everyone speaks English, but some enjoy *firmly* DIRECTING me to speak to them in my “native” language once they realize I speak the language. While I actually enjoy opportunities to use other languages and thereby sharpening my skills, I don’t like being told that I must or I otherwise will not be heard.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:36 pm:
While most will probably not understand, your quote is highly appropriate within the context of this thread, MS.
- Anon - amiss - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:49 pm:
So almost half the country is dependent on the government and doesn’t pay taxes? GET A CLUE! This explains a LOT about Romney’s perspective on tax policy however.
- cermak_rd - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:49 pm:
Well, it might behoove the gentlemen to learn Serbo-Croatian, he might discover it is not that easy. It has multiple standard variants (Serbian and Croatian, et al).
He does make a very good point that many people who have immigrated to the US do not know the finer details of their own nation’s language. This is especially seen in older immigrants (universal public school is a newer concept) and immigrants who immigrated to the US as children (they didn’t stay long enough to learn their own language, then were busy attempting to learn another).
- Bemused - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:49 pm:
Romney’s numbers are are bit high I would think and his reasons for them quite suspect but all in all he is right in that this election comes down to a narrow band of swing votes. Whoever shoots himself in the foot least often should win.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:49 pm:
I saw a video in which Mitt Romney’s mom said that his dad was on “welfare relief” early in life, when he fled Mexico and came to America. So Romney’s family got government help. What would have happened to Romney if his dad didn’t get helped as a vulnerable young man is anybody’s guess.
Here is the video, for whoever is interested:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/05/1127998/-Mitt-Romney-s-Dad-was-on-Welfare
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:52 pm:
We gotta Congressman fumbling with a dog whistle. Cheri’s husband is Hispanic. We get it.
- Blue and true - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:54 pm:
Doesn’t sound like Schilling made the Serbo-Croatian comment. Schilling was clearly responding to that, but that sounds like a constituent to me.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:55 pm:
=He does make a very good point that many people who have immigrated to the US do not know the finer details of their own nation’s language.=
It’s even more complex than that, cermak. When dealing with the Soviet block of countries, those who emigrated to the US long ago will argue that the language they brought here, taught their children, and is still taught in their churches’ language programs on Saturdays and Sundays is more “pure” because it was not, or was less, subject to the changes forced upon citizens under Soviet rule.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:55 pm:
===Whoever shoots himself in the foot least often should win.===
Does Romney have any feet left to shoot?
- Blue and true - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 1:58 pm:
As I mentioned on the other thread, it’s clear that Schilling is talking about the difficulty of learning a second language without knowing the fundamentals of your first language. This could apply to hispanics… it could also apply to freshmen Spanish 101 or French 101 students in high school. Anyone who’s bothered to learn a second language knows that.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:00 pm:
And I’ll add that THAT’s where many pols make a huge mistake by pandering to ethnic groups. In their attempts to pander to a new voting block, they turn off those from the same regions, but who came here earlier.
Some would say “dangerous ground that”.
- Thoughtless Penny - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:06 pm:
–I just (as in, past month) had an employee leave because he/she couldn’t speak English well enough to keep up.–
Schilling doesn’t speak English well enough to keep up, either.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:09 pm:
–I just (as in, past month) had an employee leave because he/she couldn’t speak English well enough to keep up.–
You don’t know whether the person was a man or a woman? What line of work are you in, anyway?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:17 pm:
It was most likely a “s/he”, word.
- Observing - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:24 pm:
Romney was at a fundraiser. Everyone knows that fundraising never stops so Romney was setting up his audience for another fundraising hit by invoking the “Democrats-want-to-take-our-hard-earned-money-and-give-it-to-those-slackards” mantra. Crazy thing is that that’s what Romney’s followers alway think so something that is so understood should never need to be spoken.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:24 pm:
OT, but it was interesting to see that Putin finally admitted to the press that many of his stunts painting him as a “Renaissance Man” were actually staged for publicity purposes, including fishing that Greek vase out of whatever body of water he was diving in at the time.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:33 pm:
Reading these comments, there are some busy people over at Schilling campaign headquarters. Get back to work!
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:35 pm:
Ah…”Anonymous” strikes again sniping orders.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:36 pm:
…to “volunteers.” Ha!
- Fed up - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:38 pm:
Hmm. Obama believes thier are 57 states, can’t figure out if Eygpt is an ally or not and cant be comprehended with out a TelePrompTer but we concentrate on the idea that 47% of the country doesn’t pay income taxes.
- just sayin' - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:40 pm:
Leave it to Illinois Review to agree with Romney that insulting and writing off nearly half of the electorate is good campaign strategy.
Basically Mitt now has to get something like 95% of the remainder in order to win. Good luck with that folks.
Sheesh is right.
- Lil Enchilada - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:40 pm:
No official language is mentioned or contemplated in the Constitution.
- Left Leaner - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 2:49 pm:
Do you think Romney understands that some of those of those 47% are Republicans? Do you think Republicans even understand that?
When Schilling can actually speak English semi-intelligently, he can critique non-English speakers. Until then, quiet down Congressman.
- Pandora - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 3:26 pm:
I’m stumped. I’m for Obama, but I don’t get a government check of any kind, and I don’t see myself as a victim. My parents who get social security, worked all their lives and saved so that social security is a supplement, not something they are dependent upon. (Heck, my 84 year old father still works full time.) They are for Obama as well, but hardly feel like victims.
That’s the true stupidity of the comment, it not only knocks everyone on unemployment and social security, it also dismisses those of us (like me, my husband and our kids) who work, don’t get government checks and still will vote for Obama.
- redrum - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 3:42 pm:
I’ve know Bobby Schilling for 25 years and for him to say this isn’t his voice is troubling. Sad.
- capncrunch - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 3:46 pm:
“No working person gets out of paying FICA or Medicare taxes, which fund more than 40% of the federal budget.”
I think he said income taxes. In fiscal 2011 the government spent $3.6 trillion and collected $819 billion in Medicare and Fica. Those taxes funded about 23% of spending.
- Liandro - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 3:59 pm:
Wordslinger, my desire to protect the identity of a former employee trumps my desire for you to know his or her gender, especially since that employee didn’t ask to be thrown in the middle of a political discussion. If you have an issue with what I said, then add your two cents to the actual discussion–no need to be caustic. One of the reasons I use my actual name online is to hold myself to the same standards of respect I would hold myself to in person.
I don’t know who redrum is, but from the several times I’ve heard Bobby speak, both to friendly and not-so-friendly audiences, it makes more sense that he did NOT say that part. There are plenty of officeholders it wouldn’t surprise me from, but he isn’t one of them.
And fwiw, if he didn’t say it I completely take back my criticism of it.
- Cheryl44 - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 4:29 pm:
Who isn’t dependent on government? Roads do not occur in nature.
- Capitol View - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 4:36 pm:
my elderly mother lived on her school clerk pension and her husband’s Social Security. In her last few years, in a for profit nursing home, she paid no federal or state taxes due to her income level and her deductions for being elderly and legally blind.
But if she were alive today and met Mitt Romney, she would kick him in the shins for calling her a
governmental parasite.
- DuPage Dave - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 6:12 pm:
A huge chunk of Republican voters are older people who live on Social Security and pay no income tax. They are in the 47 percent statistic.
Romney is speaking in code to his right wing faithful, since “government dependent” and “pay no taxes” means something special to them.
- amalia - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 6:28 pm:
what ethnicity is Bustos? and to whoever said the words in question, you WISH you could speak Serbo- Croatian.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 6:45 pm:
“Leave it to Illinois Review to agree with Romney that insulting and writing off nearly half of the electorate is good campaign strategy.”
@justsayin
And here I thought the Wisconsin Republican Party chairman got picked to head the national Republicans, not the people who run the Illinois Republican Party.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Sep 18, 12 @ 10:28 pm:
=And here I thought the Wisconsin Republican Party chairman got picked to head the national Republicans, not the people who run the Illinois Republican Party.=
Some might consider that better than being run over or even out by DC “consultants” who don’t understand the Midwest…or the intricacies of various ethnic groups.