FLASHBACK: Chambliss Hosted Golf Event At Whites-Only Country Club
FLASHBACK: Chambliss Hosted Golf Event At Whites-Only Country Club
As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, Chambliss has a long history of using official funds to feed his golf habit and endear himself to lobbyists. For example, Chambliss oversees the Republican Majority Fund PAC. Under him, 68 percent of its spending has gone to travel, golf events, meals and administrative costs. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, “[O]f the top 10 recipients of the Majority Fund’s money since 2007, only one was a political organization.”
At the 2000 Republican convention, Chambliss — along with then-lawmakers Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, who have both faced significant legal and ethical troubles — hosted a golf event for lobbyists at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia, which has a long history of discrimination against people of color. As the New York Times reported in 1993:
Unable to meet the requirement that clubs must have nondiscriminatory membership policies to host tournaments, the Aronimink Golf Club has asked to be relieved of its agreement to be the site of the 1993 P.G.A. Championship, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America said tonight.
Aronimink, a private club in Newtown Square, Pa., near Philadelphia, has no minority-group members. [...]
O’Brien said the club had told the P.G.A. it had a seven-year waiting list for new members, but asked that it be considered as the site for a future championship when is is able to conform to the national association’s policy on membership.
However, 10 years later — and three years after Chambliss’s golf event — it’s still not clear whether the club had stopped its discriminatory policies. USA Today reported that as of April 2003, Aronimink had 325 members. Just five were women. The club “declined to elaborate on the number of minority members.”
And even if the club was discriminating against people of color, it’s not clear Chambliss would care. Earlier this month, Chambliss lamented that because of Barack Obama, there was a “high percentage of minority vote” and Republicans weren’t “able to get enough of our folks out” to vote. Last month, he said that “a rush to the polls by African-Americans…got our side energized.”
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– - And what if Tiger Woods wanted to play there and bring along a basketball-loving “mutt” like himself from Illinois?
November 24th, 2008 at 11:33 amChambliss; a despicable, classless, racist, cowardly, draft-dodging POS.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:33 amBob Ney, Tom DeLay…I think that’s all we need to hear, eh?
Mr. Chambliss, one is judged by the company he keeps, and we’ll have to give you a double bogey on those choices you made.
Georgians, here’s your chance to join the fray and make a corrupt Republic just go away…
‘Enough of our folks’, indeed…
November 24th, 2008 at 11:33 amOf course, Senator Chambliss would host an event at such a private course, regardless of the club’s discriminatory practices! In his old guard, dying, ‘black and white’ world, there is nothing ‘impolite’ about not interacting with ‘those foks’ and ’sticking with your own kind.’
‘Race mixing’ and all of that. So 1960s. Bye, bye Saxby…
November 24th, 2008 at 11:34 amThe abuse of supporter dollars was bad enough. But like every Republican story, it stinks at first and stinks even more when you scratch deeper.
But this does remind me of a skit on “In Living Color” that ended with the slogan:
We play on our Greens, We don’t eat them.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:36 amI wonder if Karl Rove would describe him as the kind of guy at the country club with women on each arm who looks down at everybody else.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:39 amNormally, I don’t pick too hard on where fund-raisers are held and who hosts them, because it tends to make me sound like the people who blasted Obama for allowing a coffee fundraiser to be held for him by that “terrorist” Bill Ayers, or the Elizabeth Dole campaign for implying her opponent was “godless” because she attended a fundraiser that was organized by an atheist group.
However, in this case I’ll make an exception. Chambliss must have known this golf club was a “whites only” place. Has he changed since then? Did he ever apologize or express any regrets for that event? No, but he has recently made statements that firmly place his mindset as an “us versus them” mentality, with the “them” being African-Americans. I would be willing to bet he still prefers being in places where he doesn’t have to associate with anybody who isn’t lily white.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:44 amOdds are he’ll win his run off, even though he’s a poster boy for right wing scum. Hard to beat a cracker in the heart of Crackerland, even if he’s voted against his own constituents workplace safety to protect his golf buddies. That’s not to say there aren’t rational folks in Georgia. They’re just outnumbered by the terminally dumb ass.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:54 amDoes Obama play golf if he does he can’t play there. A President of the United States not allowed in to play golf priceless. Now Chambliss is looking for those black votes as McCain/Mitt?Rev. Huck looked for votes knowing they could careless about the people. I’m glad racism is quickly leaving my country as there are few racist left to kick and yell.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:58 am.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
… You can’t spell (R)acist without borrowing that (R)!
.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:05 pmWhile I think racism was struck a blow by the election of Barack Obama, I don’t think it was even close to a mortal blow. Witness Chambliss and his ability to pretty much be upfront and open about his racist tactics… and witness the lack of outrage from the media.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:09 pmI am guessing that That One doesn’t golf, but the thought of the POTUS being thrown out of the clubhouse should give the haters pause. The good news is that with every year, these racist bastards are dying off. The bad news is that attrition takes a long time.
Is the clubhouse constructed of wood? Dry, aged wood?
November 24th, 2008 at 12:12 pmRe this and the preceding thread on Chambliss’ spending. I wonder how much money was spent on Republican’s favorite things like nose candy, expensive whisky, boy-whores and girl-whores?
November 24th, 2008 at 12:14 pmJust tell him not to order the lobster or duck next year … or whatever the hell it is they eat down there.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:16 pmThey don’t like non-rich Whites, either.
November 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pmChambliss, the ultimate example of a Georgia Saltine.
I just hope this is truly a dying breed of scumbag. What say you, Georgians?
November 24th, 2008 at 1:06 pmPrecisely why I’ll be voting for Jim Martin, again, next Tuesday.
I’m not hopeful, however, that Martin can win. The fact that there even is a whites-only country club should explain why…
November 24th, 2008 at 1:08 pmupside99 Says: I just hope this is truly a dying breed of scumbag. What say you, Georgians?
I think it is, actually. I taught high school in a rural Georgia district where the Ol’ Boys still run everything, but the students were considerably more open-minded and tolerant when it comes to skin color than their racist parents. A popular mixed race boy was voted most Athletic, and a girl from Pakistan was actually voted Homecoming Queen. Unfortunately, they still have a long way to go on gay rights…
November 24th, 2008 at 1:12 pmmisshusseinmolly Says: the Elizabeth Dole campaign for implying her opponent was “godless” because she attended a fundraiser that was organized by an atheist group.
I think it’s still a sign of how far we have to go when the term ‘godless’ is openly used as an epithet much in the same way ‘gay’ or the n-word have been used against other minorities.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:22 pm9. Jackie,
Good Ole Boy Chamblis doesn’t have to worry about this being an issue for the vote – he’s from rural GA where they don’t have any trouble with people of color – cause there aren’t any.
And I’ll point out again, rasied in Athens, GA and went to UGA.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:34 pmGood Ole Boy SackOShitChambliss, caught in the act of openly blatant racism..
November 24th, 2008 at 2:00 pmChambliss never won in 2002—Max Cleland did. It’s Diebold machines that said Chambliss won.
As late as the 1960’s and 70’s, Jewish people would not be admitted to a southern country club. Don’t know about today.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:02 pmunbelievable Says
November 24th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I think it’s still a sign of how far we have to go when the term ‘godless’ is openly used as an epithet much in the same way ‘gay’ or the n-word have been used against other minorities.
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I grew up in Seattle, and also lived for awhile in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Los Angeles area. In none of those places would an attack of “godlessness” have gotten much traction in a campaign.
But here in the Bible Belt, it’s a whole ‘nother matter.
I agree with you that we have a long way to go, but the distance is farther in some places than in others.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:35 pm