Update: Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer backtracks on remarks, gets lampooned on Daily Show

Update January 26: Unapologetic about his remarks just two days ago, Lt. Gov. Andrew Bauer is now changing his tune.

The State reports today that Bauer now says he regrets the comments comparing people who take public assistance to stray animals "because now it's being used as an analogy, not a metaphor."

These politicians and their fancy words...

Here's the article from The State.

Also, the remarks have garnered a none-too-surprising lampooning on The Daily Show (video embedded up top.) Yes, the latest bit plays off their earlier lampooning of S.C.'s gaffes last year. 

Update January 24: A day out from the story that headline seems entirely too light hearted.

Bauer has responded on his blog and in an article in The State and has shown himself to be entirely unapologetic about his description of the poor as feral animals and that by feeding their children we only enable uncontrolled breeding.

Our Lt. Gov. appears to be trying to shape the idea that the backlash is about the policy ideas he suggested and not his parallels on the poor.

Over at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jay Bookman has penned an excellent breakdown on the remarks and does a good job reaching beyond the sensational "feral animals" remark and analyzing the policy behind the remark; Read it here.

First reporting:

In the past our Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer (who's running for governor) has had a number of run ins with the South Carolina political disease of doing really, really silly things (see: speeding) but now it looks like that disease is flaring back up.

Read more stories on this subject in our Andre Bauer topic page.While speaking at a town hall meeting he said, as quoted in The Greenville News: "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Yes, it's one quote, with little context and could possibly be not quite what he meant, but, wow. -- Who's giving this guy speaking advice?

Go get the rundown on his full remarks over at The Greenville News and listen to them here.

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