Posted on 04/21/2008 1:03:54 PM PDT by NorCoGOP
DENVER — Republican Rep. Douglas Bruce was ordered to leave the podium of the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday after calling Mexican workers "illiterate peasants."
Bruce made the comment during a debate on a bill that would allow the state to help immigrant workers get temporary visas from the federal government.
The Mexican Consulate in Denver did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The bill is designed to ease a shortage of farmworkers in Colorado.
Bruce, of Colorado Springs, has had had other run-ins since arriving at the Capitol in January as a midterm appointee to fill a vacancy.
He became the first Colorado lawmaker censured by the House after he kicked a newspaper photographer for taking his picture during a prayer. Republicans later removed him the powerful State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee because he refused to co-sponsor a resolution honoring military veterans.
Bruce said he believed resolutions were a waste of time because they have no legal impact.
You can only say things like that if you are a Democrap!
Sounds like he never learned how to play well with others.
So, did anyone offer any evidence that what he said was not true?
I thought not........
bump
Isn’t that what they’re called in Mexico?
What a dope! Now instead of focusing on the issue, the libs have something to whine about and be victimized. Some people just shouldn’t be put in front of a mic where they can really mess it up.
This guy was already developing an international reputation as a grandstanding idiot before his latest remarks.
How dare he speak the truth! Everyone knows that illegal alians are far better educated than we Americans. That’s why they have all the good jobs!
I don’t get it. His definition was very descriptive and true. Most illegals are uneducated and they are peaseants.
Yes, this is the kind of thing that happens with zero tolerance of other people’s ideas. Illiterate peasants are just that and if most illegals are then what is the harm is telling he truth and what is the harm in saying it even if it is not the truth, the traditional thing is to give an opposing point of view not deny the speaker time to talk. Dems are for enslaving us, if you can’t see that you can’t see anything.
This guy has been a loose canon right from the start. Right or wrong on this one latest issue is irrelevent because of his past and inflamatory words. He is doing harm to an already weakening GOP in Colorado with his antics. If it were up to me, he’d be gone today. It doesn’t take long when you listen to him talk before a wide range of questions come to mind, not the least of which is: is this really the best guy Colo. Springs can find to represent them?
Of course we aren't supposed to say or even think of such things.
On construction work throughout Latin Ameirca, the word used for laborers was peones.
It must have been how he said it...
Like duhhhhhhh.
You’re not supposed to use insulting words. He could have said “under-schooled” working class???
Only 18% of the Mexican population is engaged in agriculture as their occupation.
Therefore his characterization of illegal Mexican immigrants as "illiterate peasants" is not really accurate.
Back to sensitivity training for him. They are not “illiterate peasants”, they are “reading challenged, nomadic, non-property owners”
I Think I LIKE this guy!
Bruce is one tough cookie. He gave us TABOR, the Taxpayer Bill Of Rights, that bans tax increases or new taxes without voter approval!
Saying what he said as a representative of the people is out of line. I have no love for illegal aliens but our government must always be polite and dignified even when declaring war. I love Bruce and his ideas but he needs to represent the people with tact.
That about sums it up.
He wasn’t talking about illegals. He was talking about legal guest workers.
Fat chance. He's his own worst enemy.
Yes, but were they bitter people hanging on to God, guns and racism?
Yep.
is this really the best guy Colo. Springs can find to represent them?
No, not by a long shot. He got in on a vacancy committee vote. I understand there is a good Republican getting ready to take him on in the next election.
“after he kicked a newspaper photographer for taking his picture during a prayer”
Loose cannon? I don’t know, I’ve never heard of him before today. If this is true, I’m certainly trepidicious.
He should have directed his condemnation not at these illiterate peasants but to the corrupt Mexican government that denies them a decent living. Besides, I trust these peasants more than the many Muslims that enter our country legally.
The topic was not about illegal aliens. The debate was about assisting workers with their work visas (which refers to people who are or are attempting to be in the US legally). Furthermore, according to the article he described "Mexican workers" (not illegal aliens) as illiterate peasants.
DENVER — Republican Rep. Douglas Bruce was ordered to leave the podium of the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday after calling Mexican workers "illiterate peasants."
Who ordered him? Has the First Amendment been suspended at the Colorado House of Representatives?
The term is "Chuntaro" or "Campesino", which are terms for indian peasants, mostly illiterate.
You're right. What's more, these sorts of antics help to weaken Bruce's one real success, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR). Now that TABOR has been in operation for several years, it's clear that there are a few weaknesses which need to be addressed. But Mr. Bruce has vowed not to budge -- and TABOR will come off looking bad as a result.
Here's the real irony: he was appointed, not elected, by a "vacancy committee" to fill the unexpired term of Bill Cadman. The geniuses who made the appointment are, of course, unaccountable to the voters. (A story on the appointment process is here.)
Bruce's appointment never made much sense to me -- his similar antics made him a failure as a county commissioner; and you had to see even at the time that this sort of things as being almost a dead certainty. And of course, he's made himself the issue again -- and thus he'll be ineffective.
And now, unless Bruce gets booted in the primaries, I wouldn't be surprised if the seat actually went over to a Democrat this time.
When you deal with crap on a regular basis it is very hard to be dignified. In Colorado we have been dealt a major portion of the illegal menu. Kinda guess it comes down to truth and attitude. Tell it like it is Bruce.
“It must have been how he said it...”
Or the fact he wasn’t smiling.
The bill is designed to ease a shortage of farmworkers in “Colorado.”
Got lots of prisons filled with people that have nothing to do. Get them to work for 5.00/hr to pay off the prison system they use.
If that were changed to...calling “President Bush an illiterate monkey.” ...he would have been invited to join the DNC and given a high position.
If they are literate in English, why does the Colorado government offer paperwork in Spanish?
I can’t read Chinese or Portugese. I’d be illiterate there too. That’s what happens when you move somewhere without learning the language.
By and large, I think that our legal immigrants do the best that they can to assimilate. His comment was denegrating to them. If they didn’t have the burden of being classified in the same category as their illegal counterparts, Maybe we could understand that there are really people in this world that still come here because they believe in the “American Dream”
I coached little league in a “depressed neighborhood” for many years and the difference was stark. I’ve always believed that we were a contry of immigrants but this was my first experience in seeing that some are here because they want to become Americans and some are here only to suck the very blood out of the veins of the benevolent benefactors to the world. Big difference ,and IMHO, one worth fighting for.
The problem is: for every good idea he has, he has numerous insulting outbursts that wreck it for everyone who is for smaller government.
He delayed his swearing in so that he could skirt term-limits rules when he runs for reelection. But when he submitted his expense report, he included those days (they get a per diem).
He is a name-caller and a grandstander. He refused to sign the joint resolution honoring veterans and so many members of the public complained about him that his own party removed him from the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.
When he kicked the reporter, he was censured; the first representative to ever be formally censured.
There’s more, but you get the idea.
That seems to have been entirely true.
There is no need to hurl insults to make a point. This guy just sounds dumb. Not helpful.
“So, did anyone offer any evidence that what he said was not true?”
A GAFFE is when a politician is caught accidently telling the truth.
I last used the above line during the Ferraro (”Barack wouldnt be where he is if he were white”) kerfuffle.
Yeah I know the idea. He cut all the liberals in Colorado off of their charge and run account. He made a lot of enemies on that one alone. The tax-payers of Colorado now can hold the spenders to credible limits on spending. Damn what a concept!!! Sure made a lot of people mad didn’t he?
Conservatives in Colorado do not take Bruce to task. That lets you know who is here touting opinions that are not conservative. Bruce did what was asked of him. As far as his opinion on Mexican nationals within our states borders he has done nothing more or less than tell the truth. The truth hurts. I know. We live with it on a daily basis in Colorado when it comes to illegal Mexican nationals.
Lived, past tense. I'm a present-tenser, living in Colorado Springs. Mr. Bruce may have been "no-nonsense" at some point (though I doubt it), but he's mostly nonsense now. He doesn't think before he speaks, and he says a lot of incredibly stupid things. Thus any position he takes, no matter how valid, is tainted by association.
That’s too bad to hear. I lived just north of the republic of Boulder and he was always the liberals nemesis and I admired him for it. I also remember hearing how he crafted the tax proposition, whichever numer it was (9?) so thoroughly incorruptible that other states used it as a model to combat liberal taxation agendas.
When you live in a state that is partially occupied by the Peoples Republic of Boulder you have to take a real firm stance against liberals that show up anywhere. Our liberals take the cake.
“Everyone knows that illegal alians are far better educated than we Americans.”
I’d put money on any random handful of Mexican kids being academically smarter a random sample of the lowest performing 1/3 to 1/2 the kids in the public school system in my county.
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