Latin Hussle (sic)

In a mid-term election when Democrats are running away from their record, it is expected strategy to sling mud at their opponents. But what Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) did to defend her seat representing Orange County was beyond the pale.

Sanchez went on Univision to appeal to her Hispanic voters and stoked racist lies against her Republican opponent Van Tran. During an interview on Univision, the seven term Congresswoman claimed that her opponent was very anti-immigrant and that the Vietnamese and the Republicans were trying to take this seat away from “us”.

After a public outcry, Sanchez shimmied by issuing a half apology for a poor choice of words that some might find offensive, yet she still continued to do the Hustle that Van Tran was anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic.

The charge that Van Tran was anti-immigrant is laughable as Van Tran was born in South Vietnam and was evacuated by the U.S. Army just before the fall of Saigon in 1975. But the notion of identity politics and a seat belonging to a minority group is despicable.

Naturally, the Lamestream Media ignores this obvious race baiting from one of their own, but if a Republican said such a statement, the drumbeat from the Media to resign would be incessant.

Sanchez beat the incumbent “B-1" Bob Dornan in 1996 by only 984 votes, amidst charges of voter fraud and 6% of right leaning voters casting ballots for 3rd party candidates. After Sanchez soundly beat Dornan in the rematch, she has not faced serious opposition until now.

While Sanchez’s district resoundingly voted for Obama in 2008, it is only D+4. In this cycle turnout is key and her natural base is not energized to go to the polls. While I hate to invoke identity politics, it bears repeating that Sanchez only got 44,000 votes in the last cycle and there are over 33,000 Vietnamese living in the 47th Congressional District.

After doing the Latin Hustle and hussling her constituents, Loretta Sanchez may well be sitting out future dances on Capitol Hill.