Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said Sunday that his Democratic colleague Sen. Ted Kennedy didn't mean to use racially offensive language when he called President Bush's judicial nominees - including two minority candidates - "Neanderthals."
Asked about Kennedy's racially charged outburst, Daschle insisted to "Fox News Sunday" that he was talking about politics and not ethnicity.
"I think that there are a lot of nominees who are on the far, far right of the political and philosophical spectrum," he told FNS host Tony Snow. "I think that's what Sen. Kennedy was referring to."
But when Snow pressed, "Then why did he use the term Neanderthal?" Daschle turned defensive, telling the FNS host: "Invite him on the show and ask him. That's a question for him and not me."
Noting that Bush nominees Janice Rogers Brown and Miguel Estrada are African-American and Hispanic, respectively, Republicans have seized on Kennedy's "Neanderthal" remark, complaining that he was getting a pass for using words that would have been career-ending for a member of their party.
After Democrats prevailed in their judicial filibuster standoff against Republican senators on Friday, Kennedy boasted, "What has not ended is the resolution and the determination of the members of the United States Senate to continue to resist any Neanderthal that is nominated by this president of the United States for any court, federal court in the United States."
Though controversy over Kennedy's outburst continued to swirl on Capitol Hill throughout the weekend, press coverage of the incident has been sparse.
A Lexis-Nexis search on Sunday showed that Kennedy's remark has been covered by just three newspapers nationwide.
Editor's note:
Have an Opinion About This? Click Here to Send an URGENT PriorityGram Today
Urgent: President Bush needs your support – Click Here Now and show your support to your friends and family
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Print Page 
Forward Page 
