South Carolina's lieutenant governor likens government assistance to poor to feeding strays By Seanna Adcox The Associated Press Originally published: January 26. 2010 1:09PM Last modified: January 26. 2010 1:57PM COLUMBIA, S.C. — When things looked their darkest for Gov. Mark Sanford -- when he was in danger of being impeached for running off to Argentina to see his mistress -- his best insurance policy may well have been South Carolina's lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer. Lawmakers knew if they removed Sanford, they would end up with Bauer, a fiercely ambitious Republican with a reputation for reckless and immature behavior. Now Bauer has folks shaking their heads again, after he likened government assistance to the poor to feeding stray animals. At a town hall meeting Thursday, Bauer, who is running for governor in his own right now that Sanford is term-limited, said: "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that." Democrats and others railed at him. "I am disgusted by these comments. They show an unbelievable lack of compassion toward the unemployed workers in our state who are hurting during these hard times," said state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, a Democrat who is also running for governor. "His comments were immoral and out of line." South Carolina schools Superintendent Jim Rex, another Democratic candidate for governor, called Bauer's comments "reprehensible" and said he should apologize. Bauer said Monday that he regrets his choice of words but that government should expect welfare recipients to try to better themselves. He wants to require them to take drug tests and attend parent-teacher conferences if they have children in school. A child of divorce who benefited from free lunches himself, Bauer insisted he wasn't bad-mouthing people laid off from work in the recession or advocating taking food from children, but rather emphasizing the need to break the cycle of dependency. "Do I wish I'd used a different metaphor? Of course I do," the 40-year-old said. "I didn't intend to offend anyone." http://www.thedailytimes.com/article/20100126/NEWS/100129936 The sad part is this is how Republicans really think, this guy just accidently let it slip. How soon we forget every rich person is that way because they earned it through hard work and self sacrifice. No one ever inherits money and business people like Ken Lay, Dick Fuld, and Bernie Madoff could easily create more jobs and wealth if the government would just get out of their way and let free markets reign supreme.
A very poorly constructed analogy. Its amusing how many state democrats wanted Sanford impeached ... and this is what they would have gotten. Its much like those who want Obama gone. While he's far from the best choice, he certainly is head and shoulders above McCain, Biden, or Pelosi.
You forgot the word "some." Why is it that people have to take an awful thing said by one jerk from SC and assume that all of an entire political party subscribes to this logic? Are you saying that a lot of wealthy people did not get that way by working hard? We all love the stories of the self made millionaire. Of course they do. That also requires that the rich person they inherited it from had to build that fortune in the first place. Meh. Sometimes yes...sometimes no. The answer to this depends on the situation.
Here's the punchline: It's not that the state Republicans don't want him in as Gov. because he's racist. They don't want him in because they think he's gay.
Harry Reid said some really disparaging remarks about Obama. Clearly this is how democrats really think.
Reid did not make disparaging remarks about Obama. Reid made disparaging remarks about American voters' views of Obama.
