The hits just keep coming. As she fends off two alleged affairs, one of Nikki Haley's detractors has now called her a "raghead." The slur was hurled at the South Carolina gubernatorial candidate on a political talk show by longtime South Carolina state Senator Jake Knotts. "We already got one raghead in the White House," Knotts said. "We don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion." Haley, who is of Indian-American descent, was raised Sikh and has since converted to Methodism. Knotts has since walked back his remarks—somewhat : 

My ‘raghead’ comments about Obama and Haley were intended in jest... Bear in mind that this is a freewheeling, anything-goes Internet radio show that is broadcast from a pub. It’s like local political version of ‘Saturday Night Live... Since my intended humorous context was lost in translation, I apologize. I still believe Ms. Haley is pretending to be someone she is not, much as Obama did, but I apologize to both for an unintended slur.

• Let's See Knotts Get Out of This One, writes Daniel Foster at National Review: "If this is true, he needs to resign — and quickly... Maybe the video, if and when it is released... will make it so eminently clear that Knotts' comments were some kind of brilliant avant garde humor that I will be eating my words in 24 hours. But if this is the senator doing an 'unintended slur' I'd hate to hear what he sounds like when he's really trying to offend somebody."

• Enough Is Enough, writes Taylor Marsh: "I don’t care about Haley’s politics or with whom she’s slept. But until people call for the resignation of Neanderthal bigots who hold office we’ll never purge our politics from these racists."

• Stop! Don't Sympathize with Haley, urges Steve Benen Washington Monthly: "In terms of the politics, Nikki Haley is a far-right, Palin-backed candidate, running on a platform that would move South Carolina even further to the right. And yet, clowns like Knotts are actually managing to make her a sympathetic figure with their vile attacks."

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John Hudson