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NRO Senior Editor Jay Nordlinger: Reagan 'Welcomed Wetbacks'

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Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus7/16/2012 4:41:18 pm PDT

Oh look, a young writer at NR in 1998 by the name of Jonah Goldberg called attention to a politician using the term “wetback”:

THOSE POLITICALLY CORRECT DEMOCRATS
Orthodox rabbis “are closer to Nazis than they think they are.” — Geoffrey Fieger, Democrat for Governor of Michigan, New York Times, August 8, 1998

Americans should not receive the same wages as “a Chinese coolie or a Mexican wetback.” — Ivan Itkin, Democrat for Governor of Pennsylvania, on WLKK, Erie, Penn. as reported by the Associated Press on October 24, 1998.

Explaining why he was 40 minutes late for a candidate forum, Vinich said he was on “Indian time.” — John Vinich, Democrat for Governor of Wyoming, as reported in the Casper, Wyo. Star-Tribune on October 24, 1998

The implication by Goldberg, of course, is that the Democrats were being hypocrits, but they could only be hypocrits if indeed there was some underly moral issue at stake.

So, if Jonah Goldberg recognized that there were issues around using the term “wetback” way back in 1998, how come 14 years later the very same magazine now uses the term approvingly?