Lawmaker Says He Felt ‘Segregationist’

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.”

McKinney, who lost her reelection bid last month, could not be reached for comment. 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 Associated Press on Friday that Ballenger’s comment was “not a general statement of his belief.”

Rep. Melvin 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.