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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 16 (AP) — A Japanese-American representative from California has called for Republican leaders to condemn comments of a Republican colleague from North Carolina that Japanese-Americans were interned in World War II for their protection.
The representative, Michael M. Honda, a Democrat, compared the remarks of his colleague, Representative Howard Coble, to recent comments by Senator Trent Lott, of Mississippi. In December, Mr. Lott was pressured into resigning as majority leader after praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign, which promoted racial segregation.
Mr. Honda said he was "outraged" that Republican leaders had made no move, despite requests from Japanese-Americans, to persuade Mr. Coble to step down as chairman of the House subcommittee overseeing domestic security.
Mr. Coble said on a North Carolina radio show on Feb 4. that Japanese-Americans had been interned for their safety, but disagreed with a caller who said Arab-Americans should be confined.
"We were at war; they were an endangered species," Mr. Coble said. "For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."
Mr. Coble later released a statement saying the internment was "the wrong decision and an action that should never be repeated." He has refused to give up the subcommittee post.
The SCLM has been all over this one too, of course.
The lack of attention paid to this by the right side of the blogosphere is of no surprise, given the general lack of concern over racial issues, other than Kerry the Jew and Gary Hart the anti-Semite, and the belief expressed by Instapundit, and presumably shared by many, that the only problem with locking up people based on their ancestry was the overestimation of the threat some Japanese-Americans may have posed during WWII.
IsThatLegal is Coble central. And, he's right that the Democrats should be screaming about this and supporting Honda. Shame on them for not doing so. Aside from the principle, this guy should not be chairing the sub-committee on Homeland Security.