Earlier this week, Gene Alday, a Republican state representative in Mississippi, sparked a national firestorm when he said that all of the blacks in his hometown would sooner live off welfare than find a job. Well, on Tuesday, in the face of scathing criticism from both Democrats and Republicans alike, Alday publicly apologized for his remarks.
Alday admitted that he’d made a mistake by telling The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger that the blacks in his hometown of Walls, five minutes south of Memphis, get “food stamps and what I like to call ‘crazy welfare checks,'” and are content to live off that rather than work. When the story first broke, Alday claimed that he’d been taken out of context–an excuse that nobody on either side of the aisle bought. Apparently the state house Republican leadership made that known loud and clear, because Alday sounded contrite–at least outwardly–when he took to the state house floor. Watch the speech courtesy of The Clarion-Ledger.
To his credit, Alday didn’t engage in the “sorry if anyone was offended” nonsense that has become all too typical of public apologies from Democrats and Republicans alike. For that reason, I no longer think that he should resign immediately, as I demanded when I mentioned this on Tuesday. But should he run for reelection? I’m not so sure. Race-baiting of this sort has no place in our politics, whether it comes from the mouth of a Democrat or a Republican. You can’t just come back from making comments like this. And that’s especially true in a state with such a troubled racial history. If I were Alday, I’d be doing a lot of soul-searching–and making plans to do something else in 2016.
