N.C. Rep. Ballenger Says He's Also Had `Segregationist Feelings,' Then Apologizes

The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Dec. 20 —

Responding to Sen. Trent Lott's recent comments, Rep. Cass Ballenger told a newspaper he has had "segregationist feelings" himself after conflicts with a black colleague. Friday morning, he went on local radio to say it was a stupid comment to make.

Ballenger, a North Carolina Republican, had said in Friday's Charlotte Observer that former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., so provoked him that "I must admit I had segregationist feelings."

"If I had to listen to her, I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling," Ballenger told the Observer. "But I think everybody can look at my life and what I've done and say that's not true.

"I mean, she was such a bitch," he said.

McKinney, who lost her re-election bid, has an unpublished telephone number and could not be reached by The Associated Press for comment Friday.

Friday morning, Ballenger told Charlotte radio station WBT that the comments were "pretty stupid on my part" and that he didn't think he had segregationist feelings.

"I talk too much," Ballenger said. "In that specific case, I was trying to say that almost anybody can develop an animosity to individuals. In this particular case, I picked on Cynthia McKinney because she was what I consider less than patriotic to the United States."

Ballenger's chief of staff, Dan Gurley, told The Associated Press on Friday that Ballenger's comment was "not a general statement of his belief."

"There's no question in my mind that the comment there is not a reflection of his general view, it's only a reaction to the pushiness of somebody like McKinney," Gurley said. "In fact, I've seen him go out of his way to show himself as just the opposite of that."

Lott ignited a firestorm this month after praising Sen. Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential campaign during a birthday bash for the South Carolina senator.

Friday morning, following criticism from fellow senators and pressure from the White House, Lott issued a statement saying he would step down as Senate majority leader effective Jan. 6. The Republican said he would continue to represent Mississippi as a senator.

When Ballenger was asked if he believes Lott is a segregationist, he said, "I'd have a hard time saying he wasn't. Basically in some areas of the South, in Charlotte and everywhere else, there are people who get rubbed the wrong way (thinking) `We've got to bend over backwards; we've got to integrate' and things like that."

Ballenger, a senior member of the House Committee on Education, easily won a ninth term in November with 60 percent of the vote.

Rep. Mel Watt, a black Democrat from Charlotte, said he believed race wasn't the main motivation for Ballenger's words. "I suspect that whatever she's doing that's gnawing on him has to do more with what she's saying and how she's saying it than the fact that she's black," he said.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2002