Gov. Bredesen slams Rep. Curry Todd's racist immigrant "rats" remark

[doeriver]

Please contact your elected member serving within the Tennessee House of Representatives and demand that Rep. Curry Todd be censured within the Tennessee House of Representatives (all Tennessee General Assembly legislators may be reached at 1-800-449-8366, then enter the last five digits of their office phone number found at the hyperlink below):
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/house/members

Bredesen slams Rep. Curry Todd's immigrant "rats" remark
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101113/NEWS02/11130324/Bredesen-slams-Rep-Curry-Todd-s-immigrant-rats-remark

Gov. Phil Bredesen on Friday said it was a "very poor choice of words" for a Republican state lawmaker to liken pregnant illegal immigrants to rats multiplying.

The Democratic governor said he hadn't heard about the comments until he was asked by a reporter.

"That's certainly a very poor choice of words, and I would never refer to any human being in that way," Bredesen said.

Rep. Curry Todd of Collierville made the comments at a legislative committee meeting earlier this week after being told that federal law requires the state to extend prenatal care to women regardless of their citizenship status because all children born in the U.S. are citizens.

Todd said that means illegal immigrants can "go out there like rats and multiply." He later told The Associated Press that it was wrong to use those words and that he meant to say "anchor babies" — itself a term many consider offensive.

Todd told WHBQ-TV in Memphis that he doesn't plan to apologize.

"I'm not apologizing to anyone who may have been offended," he said. "I used the wrong terminology"

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