GOP Campaign Director Points Out “Jap” Cars on Video

Today's GOP racial slur moment is brought to you by former state Rep. Mike Osskopp, a campaign official for Minnesota Congressional candidate Scott Kline:

It happened at a visit by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a Marine turned anti-war hero who was in Rosemount on Sunday stumping for Rowley in the Second Congressional District race. Kline's Minnesota director, former state Rep. Mike Osskopp, was seen repeatedly chiding people who arrived in foreign-made cars at the Murtha event at a local VFW hall. Witnesses said they heard Osskopp several times use the word, considered a disparaging term for Japanese. One Rowley supporter, Paul Bartlett, complained Monday to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, noting that Osskopp is a 'high-level federal employee.'

Kline was quick to condemn the remarks but inexplicably went out of his way to say precisely when he thinks the slur was acceptable:

That's unacceptable now. We've all seen the John Wayne movies about World War II, and then it was acceptable. Now it's not, and [Osskopp] knows that.

Hey, thanks for clearing that up for us, buddy.

Story: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune  Video: Inside Minnesota Politics