At the annual congressional picnic yesterday, Pres. George Bush, addressing the crowd of 1,500, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggested that the African American musicians performing for the event should earn their keep after they performed:
THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)
MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We’re glad to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Proud you’re here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it’s over. (Laughter.)
Via Eric Alterman at Media Matters.
You might want to check the video on the White House page with the transcript. It looked to me like the comment was pretty clearly directed at the audience, even gesturing towards the audience as he talked, not the musicians.
Though I still think he has to be bigot to have let all of what happened in NOLA go on and still have not fixed it to this day.
Just trying to keep it real on the left side.