MN-02: GOP Staffer Caught On Camera Yelling About "Jap" Cars
Oh, dear -- another GOPer has been caught on video spewing racial slurs. Who's the latest? The political director for GOP Rep. John Kline has been filmed bellowing about "Jap" cars. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has just reported that the political director, former state Rep. Mike Osskopp, was filmed by Dem activists outside an event on Sunday with Dem John Murtha, who was in the state to campaign for Coleen Rowley, the Dem challenger to Kline. The tape -- which subsequently popped up on the Inside Minnesota Politics blog -- showed Osskopp giving people a hard time for arriving in foreign-made cars. "Another Jap car," Osskopp screamed. Osskopp -- whose sister in law, as it happens, is Japanese-American -- later apologized.















The stupidest thing about his comment is that many Japanese cars are now assembled in the U.S. by American autoworkers while American manufacturers are assembling many cars overseas using foreign workers.
You'd think a member of the GOP would have heard about offshoring at some point. Aren't these the guys who are constantly pushing free trade?
September 20, 2006 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Katherine Kersten's next column: Keith Ellison drives a Toyota!!!
September 20, 2006 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Osskopp may possibly be German for "Ass-hat." Regardless, it fits.
September 20, 2006 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jap. How 1940s of him. Never mind that Honda and Toyota cars have more domestic content and assembly than many Ford or GM cars.
In German Ass-hat would Arsch-hut. It may be Dutch for Ox Head.
September 20, 2006 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Osskopp means 'bonehead'. Could be wrong though...
September 20, 2006 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, No. He's a conservative. Conservatives use simple ideas. A Japanese nameplate means a Japanese car. An American nameplate means an American car.
you are just trying to be a pointy-headed elite liberal intellectual and complicate the argument. Do that and it won't fit into a sound-byte.
Keep it simple for the conservatives, guys.
September 20, 2006 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink