Rep. Westmoreland, who co-sponsored a bill to post the 10 Commandments in the Senate and House, can’t recite the Decaloguge. (Transcript below.)

Any notion that the segregationist mindset died with former N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms this summer should be dispelled with news that in an interview with the The Hill newspaper in Washington last week, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia referred to Michelle and Barack Obama as “uppity“:
“I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense.”
- Rep. Westmoreland

Westmoreland was discussing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech with reporters outside the House chamber and was asked to compare her with Michelle Obama.

“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity,” Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

Republican have been using the label “elitist” to describe Obama as a codeword for “uppity” throughout the primary season.

As if more proof were needed that Westmoreland is not only an old-fashioned hater and a class A dumbass, now he is denying he knew that “uppity” is a epithet historically used by bigots to refer to African-Americans who dare to try to rise above servitude:

[Westmoreland] was born in 1950 in Atlanta and was raised in one of its surrounding communities.

Which means the Republican grew up at a time when the racial divide in the South was stark, a time when Jim Crow laws helped enforce a segregationist credo that limited opportunities for blacks, a time when — as an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article puts it today — “uppity” was “a word applied to African-Americans who tried to rise above servile positions.”

But to hear Westmoreland tell it, he had no clue he was using a racially tinged word when, as reported by The Hill newspaper, he said in Washington this week: “Honestly, I’ve never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama. Just what little I’ve seen of her and Sen. [Barack] Obama, is that they’re a member of an elitist class … that thinks that they’re uppity.”

The remark, the Journal-Constitution reports, quickly “zipped around the Internet, causing Westmoreland’s office phones to ring off the hook.”

That furor, in turn, prompted the two-term congressman to issue the following statement:

I’ve never heard that term used in a racially derogatory sense. It is important to note that the dictionary definition of ‘uppity’ is ‘affecting an air of inflated self-esteem — snobbish.’ That’s what we meant by uppity when we used it in the mill village where I grew up.

The Ticket finds it amazing that someone with such a sheltered upbringing could achieve such success in life.

Worships 10 Commandments, But Can’t Name Them

Speaking of dumbass, in the video at the top, Westmoreland, who co-sponsored a bill to post the 10 Commandments, can only name three of the edicts:

Stephen Colbert: What are the Ten Commandments?

Lynn Westmoreland: What are all of them?

SC: Yes.

LW: You want me to name them all?

SC: Yes.

LW: Uhhh.

LW: Ummmm. Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Ummmmm.

LW: I can’t name them all.

Apparently, Rep. Westmoreland forgot that lying was among the 10 Commandments when he said he did not know “uppity” was a derogatory term.