When women and blacks are The Others

THERE'S BEEN ANOTHER Jon Kyl moment, this one in the Oklahoma legislature. (To refresh: It was Sen. Kyl who said that his numbers accusing Planned Parenthood of engaging in abortions 90 pct of the time were not meant to be factual.) Now, another Republican has stepped forward to apologize for saying something she didn't mean about women and African-Americans. Her comments would be nothing more than a micro-blip on the rest of the world's screens. But she deserves to be called out anyway as a sort of twisted microcosm of the ugly merger of religion and politics by the fringe's practitioners.

I'm referring to Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, who, rather than whisper her virulent biases to her fellow travelers, went on to the legislature's floor to declare that women and blacks don't work as hard as white men and shouldn't expect to be paid equally. It spilled out during a debate on affirmative action that led her to share her expertise on stunted work habits by saying she knew "a lot of people of color who didn't study hard" because they knew " the government would take care of them."

In the case of women, she implied that they could expect their husbands to take care of them.

Well, people, I don't need to tell you that something awful hit the fan, which led her to apologize, saying, never mind, she didn't didn't really mean that to be factual. Let her explain: "It came out wrong."

Based on her track record, that's probably not factual, either. Driven by religious fervor, she was involved in a crusade called "Oklahoma Citizens Proclamation for Morality,''' which scandalized gays because the Bible tells her so.

It's always a time to pause before picking on little people like Sally Kern. But what she says is shared by a lot more folks than anyone can guess. The fringe Christians , according to the polls, make up a large segment of the Tea Party , which now controls the Republican Party. Or as Chris Matthews aptly describes it: "The party with the fringe on top."

As for Sally Kerry and Jon Kyl, it's altogether possible they've been spending too much time taking refuge in Peter the Great, who was once heard to complain about his erring subjects: "They understand everything erroneously!"