I hereby nominate Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania, and nominal Republican, as the new Chairman of the Know Nothing Party
From Newsmax: Arlen Specter’s Polish Jokes ‘Offensive’
When Pennsylvania Congressman Jack Murtha recently said many of his home staters are “racist” and “rednecks,” he may have been referring to the state’s longtime U.S. senator.
The New York Post’s Page 6 reports that Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., used the occasion of a public luncheon Friday to lighten up the crowd by telling Polish jokes.
Specter was speaking before the influential Commonwealth Club, a Pennsylvania Republican group meeting in New York’s Rainbow Room, when he began his opening act.
The senator queried his audience if anyone present was Polish. Reportedly, about 10 people raised their hands.
Apparently callous to their feelings, Specter let loose with a stream of Polish jokes. The Post said he recounted the old one about a person who tells another person that he knows a good Polish joke. The man responds, “Hey careful, I’m Polish!” Specter delivered the punchline: “That’s OK, I’ll tell it more slowly.”
A member of the stunned audience told the Post that Specter’s jokes were “insensitive.”
“I was offended, and I’m not Polish,” the source said.
Also at the Huffington Post: Specter Polish Jokes At Luncheon Deemed “Tasteless”.
The Republican Party of Pennsylvania, which sponsored the meeting at which Sen. Specter spoke, says in its principals statement:
diversity is a source of strength, not a sign of weakness, and so we welcome into our ranks all who may hold differing positions. We commit to resolve our differences with civility, trust, and mutual respect, and to affirm the common goals and beliefs that unite us.
Do you think they will censure him for violating their principals?
Of course he later apologized as is de rigueur for such politicians. In Yiddish or Polish — Paskudnik. Interestingly, his Wikipedia bio states that his parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia; more than likely from the Russian controlled portion of Poland. There is a very good chance that his parents were Polish!