WASHINGTON — In a surprise move, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., tried to get a House vote Thursday on a resolution condemning Texas Gov. Rick Perry for a racial slur once painted on a rock at his family’s leased West Texas hunting ranch.
Jackson was unsuccessful. But he said on the House floor that the ranch’s name, “Niggerhead,” was offensive.
The African-American lawmaker, son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said, “Nigger is offensive.
“Niggerhead is offensive. And for a governor of one of our great states to hunt at Niggerhead Ranch, it’s offensive,” Jackson said.
Jackson was unable to get a vote for procedural reasons, and his appeal to obtain a floor vote failed mostly along party lines, 231-173.
The name of the ranch became an explosive issue in Perry’s presidential campaign after a Washington Post story Sunday. The newspaper reported it had seven people who said the racial slur written on a large rock at the camp entrance was legible for years, while Perry said his family had it painted over in the early 1980s.
Perry’s campaign office issued two strongly worded statements Sunday, and in a Fox News interview Thursday, Perry for the first time spoke directly about the controversy.
“All of us agree that the word that was on that rock was a very offensive rock — very offensive word,” he said.
“There were very much and some strong inconsistencies and just infactual information that was in that story,” Perry said. “I know for a fact in 1984 that rock was painted over. It was painted over very soon. My family did that; we painted over that rock and it stayed that way. I have no idea where or why people would say they had seen that rock because that’s just not the fact.”
