(Conrad) Burns jokes about Italian-Americans

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record), who has gotten into hot water before for comments seen as disparaging various groups, joshingly remarked Thursday on the number of Italian-Americans at the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Montana senator, facing a tough re-election fight against Democrat Jon Tester, was heading an aviation subcommittee hearing of the Commerce Committee when two FAA officials, Michael Cirillo and Nicholas Sabatini, introduced themselves as witnesses.

"I'm wondering if that's all they're hiring," Burns said of the federal agency.

Burns campaign spokesman Jason Klindt said the senator was just kidding around with the two Italian-Americans.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_el_se/burns_italians

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Great. Tester should win by about 60% or better.

[sasquatch]

2. Jesus, did his mom drop him on his head or something?

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. In the infamous words of Anthony Scalia

[Thoreau-Ly]

16. Aw, Come On.

He was wiping off some lickspittle. Give the poor Fascist a break.

/shark

[Judi Lynn]

4. Surely there aren't that many people in Montana who can stand him.

Guess the only people who want him in office are the ones who benefit from all the pork he has delivered.

Another stroke of genius from the article:

Also during Thursday's hearing, Burns asked witness Matt Andersson, senior aviation consultant for CRA International, about the spelling of his name. Andersson said it's the Swedish spelling.

"Oh, ja," Burns replied in a mock Swedish accent.
(snip/)

:eyes:

[whistle]

10. Burns pretty much looks like he lives on fermented cactus and mad cow

...infested beef!

[krispos42]

5. Musta eaten paint chips as a kid (good ol' element #82. Mmmm, tasty)

And I guess all that Air America hires is Jews, right?

sigh...

I am an Italian-American. You can't tell by my last name, but I am. I guess living in Montana, Burns just kind of missed out on the fact that two of the largest immigrant groups in the past century or so are the Irish and the Italians, and they have had between three and six generations to spread across the nation.

Basing that comment on only two people is very lame, though. I mean, if like all of a larger number of FAA officials were all Italian that might be worth some note, though I fail to see how a good-natured comment could be made.

Burns: "Sabitini and Cirillo, eh? He he he, you guys whack anybody today yet?"
Cirillo: "Day ain't over yet." (glares at Burns)
Sabatini: "Not by a long shot." (also glares at Burns)
Burns: <gulp>

[PegDAC]

23. Lead.

It's what's for dinner.
;-)

[krispos42]

29. LMAO eom

[Wetzelbill]

6. as a former and future Montanan

trust me not all of us are that dumb. Conrad is actually from Missouri, I believe. He has people on his staff who have never been to MT. He's about as senile and ignorant as they get, well, besides Jim Bunning, that guy takes the cake. Conrad gets a lot of votes because he founded the Ag network and people think he is a downhome kind of guy. Lately he's been embarassing MTans so badly that basically Tester just has to not slip on a banana peel and break his own neck to win. MTans do not like being perceived in that "big city corrupt" type of way, and Conrad has really shot himself in the foot with that Abramoff and Enron stuff. His racism has only been augmented in the light of him being so corrupt, ordinarily he'd get a pass for this stuff, but he's likely in some legal trouble too, so he's under a microscope. But he has always been about this bad, he's called Arabs "Ragheads" and this was long before 9/11, he also has had some problems with the "N" word.

[liberaliraqvet26]

7. are there any Italian-Americans in Montana?

He continues to shock. Everyday its something else. Keep it coming conrad!!!

[janetle]

20. Oh yes.

Montana is more diverse than you would think. The mining industry attracted a lot of immigrants in the early 1900's and the families are still there---Serbian, Italian, Irish...

[peaches2003]

8. Watched the MT debate

I watched the debate he had last week with Tester. It was amazing. The guy is a buffoon! I thought he was doing an imitation of an old-fashioned downhome corrupt pol for a movie. How did he ever get elected to begin with? We been to MT a number of times and love it- the people there are just not this stupid. He still doesn't get it and it was insulting to Montanans.

[itcfish]

9. Sorry

But I just don't get the insult. Someone please explain it to me. I must be slow today.

[Julius Civitatus]

13. It shows suspicion and resentment of Italian Americans and hints that

the FAA may be hiring only "their kind"... you know... mafia types... all in the family.

Conrad Burns is a disgusting human being, and unfortunately I met many racist rednecks like him when I did an internship in a very "red" state.

:eyes:

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. I don't think it's that bad, but I get it

It's like this. You're in workplace and your coworker wants to introduce you to the new guys in IT. He says, "Hey itcfish. These are our new IT guys, Frank Calabria and John Antonino." Your response? "What, is IT only hiring ginzos these day? Har har."

Now imagine that the two guys are Asian: "Hey itcfish, this is Xiayou Chen and Simon Wong, our new IT guys." "Is that all they hire? Yuck yuck yuck."

Two black guys: "Hey itcfish, this is Ben White and Troy Simmons, our new IT guys." "What, we only hire black guys these days? Hyar hyar hyar!"

It's fairly mild, but the point is that it is inappropriate, especially on a first meeting, to mention ethnic factors thoroughly unrelated to the job. If you said #3 in a workplace, you would likely be pulled aside for a chat, and both Ben White and Troy Simmons would be justified in thinking you a douchebag. I'm not sure it is an insult so much as a rather obvious faux pas. It also shows how someone's mind tend to work. If the first thing that comes to your head when you meet somebody is their ethnicity, that's a pretty weird way to approach the world. Yes, many people may react this way, and with good reason. But they usually have a little internal editor that reminds them not to blurt out such irrelevancies when they are in fact irrelevant.

[Julius Civitatus]

11. I once lived in "red state", and locals did not consider Italians, Greeks,

Spaniards or Portuguese as "white" or even Caucasian. 'You know... them "off-white" folk, with their tasty foods and their suspicious zest for life.'

I did a two-year residence in a very "red" state (not Montana, btw), and couldn't run fast enough from there when I finished.
I don't want to make generalizations, but the amount of racism and prejudice that I experienced in that hellhole was quite remarkable and not comparable to anything else I've seen.

I'm not surprised Conrad Burns (R-racist) feels suspicious about 'them swarthy I-talians... and they're Catholic too!'

Ughhhhhhhh

:eyes:

(edited for typos - I type like shit)

[YOY]

12. Senator Burns can kiss my off-white Dago ass...

HE and the rest of the 'pubs for the war mongering racist holier-than-thou ignoramuses they are...especially Scalia and Alito.

[Norrin Radd]

15. Someone should ask him if if all the repubs are hiring are bigoted,

warmongering, torture-approving, hypocritical, Constitution-shredding, soft-money prostitutes.

[antonialee839]

17. I've now been insulted twice by this

asshole.

[Renew Deal]

18. The headline alone was enough to crack me up.

Burns is part of the cookoo bird wing of the republican party. Ted Stevens is President. George Allan is chairman.

[badgerpup]

19. Surprised ol' Conny hasn't choked to death on his own feet by now...

...seems he can't open his mouth without sticking them down his throat all the way to the knees.

Just for the record, there's a high Scandahoovian population in Montana... mainly Norwegians, but there's a fair share of Swedes and Danes.

[Bake]

21. Does this idiot actually WANT to lose?

Seems he's trying awfully hard to lose his election.

Bake

[UrbScotty]

22. Glass houses, Senator (nt)

[Bucky]

24. Careful, Senator Burns... you may wake up with a horse's...

...ass between your shoulders. Oops, too late.

[JerseygirlCT]

25. Isn't that what they always say? "Just kidding". right. nt

[DenaliDemocrat]

26. Conrad

As an Italian-American, I am quite proud of my heritage. I can claim the Renaissance men (Demedici, DaVinci), scientists like Galaleo and Joe DiMaggio as part of my cultural background.

You on the other hand have sex with farm animals and find humor in it. Va Fangul you racists bastard.

[NobleCynic]

27. Out of anybody else

This could have been considered a harmless joke. Boy does this guy have a record of foot in mouth syndrome though. Wow.

[Zambero]

28. The NEW Burns & Allen

After they both go down to defeat in November, this clueless duo should take their song and dance routines on the road! It would be hillarious -- and they could make big bucks offending thousands of paying customers each and every night. By pairing a natural idiot with a natural bigot, the possibilities are endless. Hopefully they'd come up with a lot of original stupid and tastless jokes using the "N" word, the "M" word, the "I" word, and for an encore they could be hosed right off the stage by irate and insulted firefighters from Virginia. I knew there was a logical explanation for having a bumbling idiot Senator from Montana take on a crew of VA firefighters who just happen to be represented by a racist Senator. A perfect set up for a perfect fallback job. Nice work, you two!

[krispos42]

30. Well, he's an OLD Republican. Doubless he thinks he's progressive

Hell, my Italian grandfather (born here, I think he's 1st generation) still refers to African-Americans as "coloreds" usually. <sigh>

Of course, he doesn't tell firefighters they're doing a piss-poor job, either. And he's not a senator; he's a retired swichman for the MTA.