Lately, when politicians and bureaucrats say stupidly offensive things, they increasingly seem to be doing it on purpose, to get press attention. The more classic style of stupidly offensive quotes by politicians and bureaucrats are those that aren’t necessarily intended to generate firestorms in the press.
One famous example of the latter occurred on September 21, 1983.
James G. Watt (b. 1938), who had been appointed as U.S. Secretary of the Interior by President Ronald Reagan, was giving a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. At one point, he explained the diversity of the members of the U.S. Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing with this dunderheaded description:
“We have every kind of mix you can have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple.”
Even for that less politically correct era, it was a stupendously idiotic remark to make in a public speech with reporters present. Naturally, it created a huge flap.
It wasn’t the only controversy Watt generated – or the only flap he managed to create in 1983.
Before Reagan appointed him Secretary of the Interior in 1981, Watt was a lawyer who specialized in representing property owners in fights against environmental protection regulations. So, his appointment itself was highly controversial.
Once in office, the policies he pursued were – as feared by environmentalists – geared more toward opening America’s national parks and preserves to development than protecting them. Naturally, that outraged environmental groups.
But they weren’t the only groups Watt managed to annoy and insult.
For example, in January of 1983 Watt said: “If you want an example of the failures of socialism, don’t go to Russia, come to America and go to the Indian reservations.”
Later that year, he angered rock and roll fans by prohibiting The Beach Boys from playing their annual Fourth of July concert at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Watt said he banned the Beach Boys because rock concerts attracted “an undesirable element.”
Then came the uproar over Watt’s September 21 remark about “a woman, two Jews, and a cripple.”
That finally led President Reagan to force Watt to resign.
Since then, Watt has continued to annoy various people and groups, but not quite as famously.
Here are some of the other famous quotes and phrases linked to SEPTEMBER 21:
• “The Star Spangled Banner” (you know the words) - Francis Scott Key's patriotic poem, later put to music and enshrined as America's National Anthem, was first published in The Baltimore American on September 21, 1814.
• “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” – The famous line in an editorial by American newspaper editor Francis P. Church, published in the New York Sun on September 21, 1897.
• “It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” – Statement by President Bill Clinton, when asked if there is any sex involved in his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, in videotaped grand jury testimony given August 17, 1998 but not released publicly until September 21, 1998.
