"Liberals" project, racialize, trivialize Chertoff comment

Please become slightly hyponatremic and slightly anemic and set the hair trigger on your Hypersensitivity Meter to 11 and read the following:

...In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Michael Chertoff, who arrives in Britain tomorrow for talks with John Reid, the Home Secretary, said the US was determined to build extra defences against so-called "clean skin" terrorists from Europe... "The fear has always been the so-called 'clean skin' - that's a person whose documents are completely legitimate, are not forged."

If you're like some "liberals", your Hypersensitivity Meter no doubt pegged, as you immediately assumed that Chertoff was making a racial comment. In fact, let's turn to Steve Benen of the Carpetbagger Report:

But with that in mind, hearing the Secretary of Homeland Security expressing concerns about "clean skin" terrorists from Europe is hardly reassuring. Maybe it's a term of art in security and immigration circles, but they couldn’t come up with a less racially-charged phrase?

And, both Think Progress and the Huffington Post linked to this story, highlighting the "clean skin" comment and, while not explicitly stating it, encouraging their readers to assume the "liberal" worst:

thinkprogress.org/2007/04/04/clean-skin-terrorists
huffingtonpost.com/2007/04/05/chertoff-the-fear-has-a_n_45084.html

A tiny bit of research would have disclosed this entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanskin

"Within the vernacular of counter-terrorism agents and police officers, a cleanskin is an undercover operative whose identity is not known to the forces he or she is tasked to infiltrate. This is usually because such an agent has not conducted any prior undercover activity... The word cleanskin originally comes from Australia, and refers to an unbranded cattle. The earliest references being around the 1860s. The word then evolved to mean a person whom has had no conviction recorded against them, a person who was 'clean'."

Instead of discussing terrorism, Chertoff's and Bush's failings to protect the U.S. from terrorist infiltration over our borders, or other issues, all many "liberals" are capable of is acting like hypersensitive children who are only able to obtain political power through racializing and trivializing issues.

Bloggage · Thu, 04/05/2007 - 12:02 · · Importance: 1