Vitter won’t condemn justice who wouldn’t wed interracial couple

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 -- 7:24 pm
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davidvitterethicscomplaint Vitter wont condemn justice who wouldnt wed interracial coupleLouisiana Senator David Vitter is facing criticism over his apparent unwillingness to speak out against a justice of the peace who refused a marriage license to an interracial couple.

After several days of political pressure on the Republican senator to condemn the actions of Keith Bardwell, a Hammond, Louisiana, justice of the peace, Vitter's spokespeople released a statement on Wednesday that declared the senator "thinks that all judges should follow the law as written and not make it up as they go along," according to Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent.

For many observers, the vagueness of the statement -- neither Bardwell nor the issue of interracial marriage was mentioned -- has raised as many questions as it has answered.

Both Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and US Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) have condemned Bardwell's actions and words. Jindal has called for the justice's dismissal, while Landrieu, a conservative Democrat, condemned Bardwell's decision as "an example of the ugly bigotry that divided our country for too long."

On Tuesday, blogger Mike Stark at The Crooked Dope posted a short video of Vitter silently stepping into an elevator and smiling as he was questioned about his views on Bardwell. The video, which can be viewed below, made Vitter the subject of intense scrutiny with respect to his views on race.

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Political observers are wondering whether Vitter sees some political benefit to staying quiet on the Bardwell controversy.

"Apparently some of us are awfully worried about losing the votes of southern racists," quipped John Aravosis at AmericaBlog.

"David Vitter's failure to condemn Keith Bardwell says all you need to know about David Vitter," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said in a statement. "To compensate for his own experience, Vitter has moved fast and furiously to the fringe of his party and is now squarely outside of the Louisiana mainstream."

The DSCC statement appears to refer to the sex scandal in which Vitter has been embroiled for the past two years. In 2007, Vitter was outed as a client of the "DC Madam," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who was convicted in 2008 on charges relating to her prostitution business.

Keith Bardwell became the subject of intense controversy last week when news reports revealed he had refused to grant an interracial couple a wedding license because he believed that it would harm the bi-racial offspring of such marriages.

Bardwell has since said he is not a racist, and will not resign.

The following video was posted to YouTube by blogger Mike Stark on Tuesday, October 21, 2009.

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Story comments are below...
  • Heil Mary
    OldAtlantic supports prostitution and adultery. No wonder he supports the GOP. May the vice squad arrest Vitter and OldAtlantic and make them cell mates.
  • OldAtlantic
    I don't support prostitution, adultery or the GOP. I didn't vote for Bush Jr either time. Nor for the Obama delusion. I believe Gore should have got his recount and would have been a better president than Bush.
  • DownriverDem
    Who cares who you voted for? We see who you are and you are way out there.
  • OldAtlantic
    Way out there is where the truth is. You lead by being way out there. You know the truth about race, you are afraid to say it. People need leaders to say the truth. Bardwell is a leader. Vitter is not undercutting him. Vitter may make the transition to a leader.
  • Savantster
    .
    You're right, we know the truth about ethnicity... and we therefore know you're one deluded shitstain.
  • GunTotinLiberal
    He cast a write in vote for David Duke
  • Savantster
    .
    If you support the bigot adulterer hooker screwing Vitter, then you DO support those things. Moron.
  • airjackie
    Vitters has sex with woman of all races so this topic would be very difficult for his to choose. Now Vitters doesn't follow the Law as we have seen so he would like to get your vote then he'll speak out. Vitters who continues to have sex with other woman hopes it doesn't make the news again or he'll have to give another ear mark of 100,000 dollars to his church to get forgiveness. Vitter's policy is let men like Mark Foley, Ensign and others do what they want just push the word that the GOP is the Christian Family/Moral party and people will believe it. It's worked for 8 years very well. As we see more and more Law Makers who confuss to prostitution, sex for a vote, affairs, sex with men, woman or even children Americans still hold up the GOP as the Christians Leaders. Governor Mark Stanford is collecting as much money as possible before he's kicked and as he will return to his soul mate Maria.
  • Scott
    Why would anyone expect this scumbag who's visited MULTIPLE hookers and has a DIAPER fetish to condemn a racist? He's a racist himself! His Louisiana dealings with David Duke are legendary. VERY good friends, they are.
  • johnbis
    Seems to me that last seen Vitter was at Madame Reba's. Whether he was picking up sheets for a Klan Klavern or a short dalliace with Temple Drake is up to conjecture.
  • douvie
    Maybe, just maybe, he was hinking in Iraq the day the victim was raped.
  • dave
    old atlantDICK....crawl back into the distant horrible past where you belong. BE GONE, horrible man!
  • GunTotinLiberal
    OA is a white supremacist and neo-nazi and posts on the white trash loser website Stormfront. Its ironic that they claim we are recreating the past seeing how OA longs for the good old days of 1859.
  • OldAtlantic
    1857 Sepoy Mutiny. Indians massacred whites because they wanted an Indian only country. This is the history of the people you are bringing here. Join NumbersUSA and free fax Congress from your computer to stop immigration including H-1b. If your job requires a brain, Congress has an Indian to take it. If it takes the back, they have a Mexican to take it.
  • Savantster
    .
    They massacred whites because whites were destroying their country, raping their women, murdering their children, engaging in biological warfare, and cheating them out of everything they could.

    You're such a moron.
  • OldAtlantic
    You bring people from the 3rd world who are tribalist. You are creating the past here by your immigration policy.
  • DownriverDem
    You are the past and marginalized daily.
  • OldAtlantic
    The people coming here from the 3rd world are completely tribalist. They hire their own. They use their positions in society to favor their own. You are making yourself a minority in your own land. That ends like the Europeans ended in Asia Minor.
  • DownriverDem
    You better leave then. The rest of us aren't worried.
  • Savantster
    .
    And your proposed solution is to hire just your own? So, you want to be more like a 3rd world nation?

    And this isn't the white man's land, it's the red man's land.. we stole it. Go back to Europe if you want to be in a land of historically white people. They became white when they moved from Mesopotamian and into the cold climes and needed to stay covered most of the day. Becoming white is a process that came from hiding under a rock; head back to your rock.
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