Perry and I were having lunch at We The Pizza near the Capitol. Lost my appetite. #COPolitics pic.twitter.com/QQ9VbZP7Ti
— Ken Buck (@BuckForColorado) November 20, 2014
Last Thursday, Rep.-elect Ken Buck described to his social media followers an encounter with President Barack Obama at the Washington, D.C. pizza joint We The Pizza. As you can see above, Buck had a pretty negative reaction to the mere sight of the President, which can be reasonably interpreted as not encouraging partisan gridlock-wise. You might also reasonably ask what exactly about the nation's first President of color elicits such a physical reaction from Rep.-elect Buck, to which he and his defenders will respond indignantly. Why should Buck even dignify that with a response?
Judging from just this Tweet, we expect most will have a reaction based mostly on their pre-existing view of Ken Buck. If you like him, you'll be inclined to interpret this charitably. If you don't–maybe you remember from the 2010 Senate when he said being gay is like alcoholism, or the story about that rape victim's "buyer's remorse"–you're probably doing to assume the worst.
On Facebook, it should be noted that Rep-.elect Buck elaborated a little more:
Perry and I were having lunch at We The Pizza near the Capitol before catching a plane. Secret Service shut down the restaurant and Pres Obama joined us for lunch. Obama was preceded by 20 Hispanic students for a photo op. Lost my appetite [Pols emphasis] but got a great story to share. Obama needed 35 Secret Service agents for a piece of pizza. I hope Michelle doesn't find out the Pres was eating bad food.
So, we're going to be as charitable as we feel we possibly can be, and give Buck the benefit of the doubt that the "20 Hispanic students" had nothing to do with his loss of appetite? Let's leave that at "we hope so." Some of our readers will not, and we honestly don't blame them.
Unfortunately, there is a more basic problem here.
As the AP reports, those "20 Hispanic students" were not Hispanic.
Hours before addressing the nation on immigration, President Barack Obama left the White House for lunch.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama were taking in a midday meal with young people from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannonball, North Dakota. [Pols emphasis] They were dining on pizza and burgers at adjoining restaurants on Capitol Hill; We, The Pizza and Good Stuff Eatery.
That's right, it's the age-old pitfall for the racially insensitive, the brown skin=Hispanic fallacy! Knowing this little detail makes the charitable interpretation of Rep-elect Buck's comments we theorized above, about losing his appetite at the sight of Barack Obama and/or whatever relationship his loss of appetite may have had to those 20 Hispanic Native American students, substantially more difficult. There's really no way Buck comes out of this without some kind of ugly side in plain view–it's just a question of how ugly.
And he hasn't even been sworn in yet, folks.
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Sharon Angle, one of Buck's '10 running mates on the Tea Party slate of Republicans, had a similar problem differentiating another group of children of color in Nevada. She said that a group of Hispanic children looked Asian to her……
It is better to keep quiet let others think that you might be stupid than to open your mouth and dispel all doubt……
Elected President of his House freshman class. Fits right in, off to a good start on the crazy.
Come on, Congressman-elect / President of the Freshman class – he's your President. Lighten up …this is what an interaction with POTUS is supposed to look like…
Nothingburger. A simple mistake at worst. Do you think you're going to take out Buck in CD-4? Call Brandon Shaffer!
Of course: Because its just normal GOP behavior to tweet out whenever you see brown people, and–being excited– its a common mistake to assume they are the scary cantaloupe legged ones smuggling Ebola up from ISIS-cartel mules.
CT, Congrats. The Denver Post called you out as a Liar on this so now you are back at home on Pols.
Mod, Just more Boulder liberals projecting their racism on others.
They need to keep them Blacks and Hispanics on the Dem plantation where they will never get ahead? How do you do that? Claim the other side are racists.
When one reads Mr. Bucks tweet or his Facebook page, either he lost his appetite because he saw 20 Hispanic kids or because he saw the President. Which do you think it was?
If Mr. Buck's comments aren't racist what are they?
Do you believe this is how a newly elected congressman should react to a chance meeting with another elected official?
Do you think showing common courtesy and respect is pase?
Why is it even relevant that Buck saw 'Hispanic' students (by which he meant 'brown–I think they must be Hispanic') to his post? Do Republicans randomly tweet out the ethnicity of people they see for no reason as non sequiturs to their other thoughts in the same statements? Spin it how you want to, it is what it is.
And even if there weren't any smidgen of racial component to any of this (and, there most certainly is), the simple fact that the Congressman [elect] would broadcast such a juvenile idea that the mere sight of the President or any group of people caused him to "[lose] his appetite," speaks more about his values and what he actually represents than any campaign propaganda, or toadying apologists.
Colorado values, Mr. Buck?!?
I got to thinking about Ronald Reagan. I never voted for him and there were a lot of things he did with which I disagreed. I got to thinking how he would have reacted if he ran into Tip O'Neill or some lowly back bench Dem at a restaurant. I'm pretty sure there would have been a handshake and a good natured joke made.
My how things have changed in the past 30 years……..
Trying to shut this conversation down, are we?
This isn't about "Boulder liberals projecting their racism on others". This is about Ken Buck going to Washington and immediately dropping the mask and revealing what a narrow, partisan Congressman he is really going to be.
Ken Buck is just going to be himself. Regardless of the electoral packaging.
Turd's got nothing, as usual. I am a rural liberal, btw, from a town of about 2,000 people in a county that voted 70% for Mittens in 2012 and for the crotchety old guy with the batshit veep pick in 2008. Buck's tweet was motivate by racial animus and demonstrates the same type of juvenile bullshit Americans are sick of. As the Denver Post noted.
Ah yes, the ol' "liberals are the actual racists" card. The very proof we needed to see that Ken Buck's comments were, in fact, racist.
Mr. Buck owes Colorado voters an apology.
I don't think anyone implied that it would cost him his seat, Moddy. Just pointing out once again what a douchebag he is.
I think Buck and Lamborn are going to be the Dullard Duo in Congress. They seem to have a similar approach to life — don't think, just use the crutch of stereotypes to justify inbred prejudices. I'll bet their voting records will be identical.
Their side has this weird need to react with a snide remark to almost everything the president does. Talk radio has polluted their brains and crippled their ability to be bipartisan on any issue. For shame! NOT.
November 2014. This may be the first time that "Ken Buck" and "classy" have ever, or will ever, appear in the same sentence . . .
ya wadda thought that living in Colorado he would have known there are distinctions of color. But, when one is "color blind" not knowing that one is Native American, the other is from America before the U.S. was the U.S. and one is definitely not Northern European. But no matter, the guy is a fool.
The son of immigrants dissing non immigrants about being immigrants. Typical Republican response.
Good thing the President showed up. Buck was about to unconstitutionally raid the students' lunch meeting and demand verification that their social security information was valid.
One of my concerns with both the Tweet and the Facebook post is that Buck must think, or certainly appears to think, he is pandering to part of his constituency. He must not think much of his constituents. This is the adult equivalent of a snarky message sent by a high school kid when the classmate who just started dating the kid’s former boyfriend or girlfriend walks into the cafeteria. I doubt this is the last of such messages.
At least he is no longer DA. Was justice blind?
Let's just say, she had "buyer's remorse" . . .
There was one thing Ken Buck did during his tenure as DA which amazed me (in a good way). He prosecuted the first hate crime inn which the victim (Angie Zamora) was transgendered person. While the line prosecutor was a deputy DA named Brandi Nieto, I cannot imagine she could have gone forward with the hate crime charge w/out Buck’s okay.