Emanuel says he will join effort to stop use of 'retarded'

WaPo ^ | 2/4/10 | Michael D. Shear

[Nachum]

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized again Wednesday for using the word "retarded" during a private meeting last summer, telling advocates for the disabled that he will join their campaign to help end the use of the word.

The controversy over Emanuel's remark continued to dog the sometimes foul-mouthed senior Obama adviser despite his having privately apologized to Special Olympics Chief Executive Tim Shriver shortly after the comment was made public last week.

In a statement after an afternoon meeting at the White House, Shriver and five other disability rights advocates said Emanuel had "sincerely apologized" for the earlier comment during a strategy meeting, which was reported in the Wall Street Journal.

[harrym]

Actually, from his point of view, the word retard as applied to his opponents the GOP is exactly correct. The dictionary definition is”to make slow; delay the development or progress of (an action, process, etc.); hinder or impede.” He and O are very upset that their plans for reforming the country on socialist terms are being “hindered” by the GOP and the right.

[P-Marlowe]

Sarah pulled the PC card and Rahm fell for it? What a retard!

and I lost a lot of respect for her when she did it. It was a pretty retarded move on her part. And no, I'm not going to issue an apology to her.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

No, not GOPers! He called liberal activists “f___ing retards.”

[blondee123]

He’s nothing more than a low-life, Chicago thug, whose cuss words flow off his tongue to the digust of most everyone in Illinois other than in Chicago proper! He needs to go!

[JimRed]

Yeah, enough with retarded; let’s go back to CRAZY and NUTS now!

< /sarc >

[JimRed]

We would have to stop using idiot and imbecile...

IIRC, idiot, imbecile and moron are medical terms for different degrees of retardation. That class was a long time ago, so I don't recall which is which.

[Fetid Facts]

It is insensitive to use the word retarded because it reminds retarded people that they're retarded. Any substituted euphemism gaining common usage will eventually be found offensive as well. What's ironic is that retarded was a euphemism to replace the hurtful words, idiot, moron, and imbecile, and had Rahm used the expression, "fu**ing idiots," the PC crowd wouldn't bat an eye.

[ApplegateRanch]

All words in the English Language are hereby BANNED as each one is, somehow, offensive to someone, somewhere, at some time.

This message will self destruct after reading, so as not to perhaps bring a sense of anguish and offended outrage upon any (probably non-existent) innocent party reading this.