Friday, February 18, 2011

Questioning Obama's citizenship brings back faint memories of another politician from Hawaii

During Watergate Hearings, while I was in high school, Senator Inouye, from Hawaii was called "that little Jap" by a lawyer. The lawyer was John Wilson who's client was John Ehrlichman. This was in a heated exchange after Inouye called Ehrlichman a liar.

There was some uproar in the press following those comments. I vaguely remember my mom saying that Wilson dug the hole a bit deeper by mentioning he would have said the same thing if Inouye had been an American. At that point, someone pointed out that Inouye is an American, born in Hawaii, but of Japanese ethnicity. Easy to misstate in the heat of discussion.

Obama was born in Hawaii also. A different look at the birther issue.

My mom and I followed the Watergate hearings and I remember her describing Erlichman's lawyer as "that feisty lawyer." When I came back from a summer camp I ask my mom if anything new had happened in the hearings. She said, "not much except that feisty lawyer had ruffled a few feathers" and she went on to explain.

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