that's what I like about the south, II

Jake Knotts, a South Carolina state senator from Lexington County, gets his mug into national news outlets once in a while for antics that, while they may not be news in Dixie, seem curious to folks living outside the barbaric regions of cornbread and televised evangelism.

For example, back in 2003 Knotts was discovered to have paid the $100 annual dues for his membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans out of his campaign funds. This was a minor transgression, to be sure, and in the land of Boss Hogg probably didn't even cause a ripple.

This morning Josh Marshall reports that "On a talk show tonight in South Carolina, State Senator Jake Knotts told listeners 'we already have one raghead in the White House, we don't need a raghead in the governor's mansion.'"

The second "raghead" he was referring to is Nikki Haley, the daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab State in India. Haley's candidacy has run into trouble because of multiple allegations of adultery, which as we have seen from the recent collapse of Governor Mark Sanford's career can get a politician in trouble even in South Carolina.

And while adultery is troublesome for aspiring pols, being fat and stupid is apparently not a problem. Voters in that part of the country are most likely reassured that such a person is "one of us."

Update: Knotts later apologized for his racist and ethnically chauvinistic remark, and said it was "a joke." I guess that makes it O.K., then.