The Silliness of Senator Perata Is Oozing In The Heat
In a wide-ranging press conference before the final three-week sprint of the Legislature, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, (D-Oakland), today called residents of southern California who are opposing a bill to provide drivers licenses to illegal immigrants “crackers” and said they “do not have the best interest of this democracy at heart”.
“Let’s face it, immigration is a red meat issue. You’ve got all these crackers down in southern California…in San Diego taking on the governor,” said Perata, presumably referring to a campaign stop Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made in La Mesa last week where he was greeted by a hostile crowd.
[Editor's note: It's not silliness. It's called something else.]
Senator Perata is a man who took an oath of office to uphold the laws of California and the United States is silly. He called all those that didn’t take such an oath, but believe in the enforcement of the Rule of Law, “CRACKERS”. So, all the Asians, Afro-Americans and Hispanics, along with Caucasians, who support the enforcement of laws are reduced to being “CRACKERS”. In the South, this is the equivalent of using the “N” word. Imagine the uproar if a GOP’er did that!
This goes along with the Senator’s support for laws giving benefits to those who violate our immigration laws, his belief that government is smarter than the families and businesses of California and his personal disregard for following the law.
While he is pushing for a State law to give illegal aliens drivers licenses, the Federal government has acted. In 2008 everyone will have to prove they are here legally in order to receive a drivers license. States that don’t do this could lose billions in Federal government grants and programs. But, for a bigot like Perata, breaking this Federal law seems like a minor inconvenience. He will probably want to use California tax dollars to sue the Federal government on this law. I can predict that with 100% certainty.
Perata blamed his attitude on the heat, just as Mel Gibson blamed it on the alcohol. Both need to really apologize and get help. Gibson is getting the help he needs, will Perata stay in denial and not get help?
What do you think? Was this a bigoted statement by Perata? Does such words and thoughts come from him without thinking? Are those that oppose drivers licenses for illegal aliens, like Governor Schwarzenegger (imagine Perata calling him a CRACKER to his face) racist or folks that believe laws should be enforced?
UPDATE:
Here is a statement sent out by Perata’s office from Perata:
Next time I come to Sacramento in August I’ll be sure to run the air conditioner. I want to clarify something I said earlier today. While I am concerned about the coarse and divisive tone used by a small minority in the driver’s license debate, I believe that the vast majority on both sides are people of good will.
UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin: “Crackers”
—
Steve Frank is the publisher of California Political News and Views and a Senior Contributor to CaliforniaConservative.org. He is also a consultant currently working on gambling issues and advising other consultants on policy and coalition building.
Read more of his work here or at his blog.
Technorati Tags: California, Don Perata, Racism, Illegal Aliens
August 4th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
In order to comply with the Real ID act, the California Legislature is going to have to pass legislation that puts Real ID into law. They will have to specify the new requirements for a driver’s license, which means the federal identitifcation requirements.
Senator Cedillo has already said that any legislation submitted to comply with Real ID must include drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens. He says if Arnold won’t accept that, then California will not comply with Real ID.
Sooooooo. If we don’t comply with Real ID, our California licenses will NOT be valid for boarding a plane or entering any federal facility.
Cedillo is prepared to cause the invalidation of 22,000,000 California drivers licenses for federal purposes just to get way.