A Texas tea party “patriot” says he misspoke about Republicans’ desire to keep African Americans from voting.

Just when I thought the tea party crowd was revealing its true colors …

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/06/04/gop-distances-itself-tea-party-leaders-remarks/

Ken Emanuelson admitted that he made a mistake when he said the GOP doesn’t want African Americans to vote because they usually vote overwhelmingly Democratic, according to the Texas Tribune.

The Tribune reported it this way: “That was a mistake,” he said in an email. “I hold no position of authority within the Republican Party and it wasn’t my place to opine on behalf of the desires of the Republican Party.”

Emanuelson’s initial comment drew a strong rebuke from Texas Democrats and state Republican leaders sought to distance themselves from his remarks.

I truly want to believe him when he says he misspoke. But something deep down makes me wonder if the tea party wing of the Republican Party actually harbors some kind of desire to inhibit voting among demographic groups that favor those dreaded Democrats.

African Americans aren’t the only such group. Labor unions lean Democrat; so do Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority in the country and in Texas potentially the most powerful group of voters. Suburban women? Sure thing.

I’m struck by the struggles that the late Sen. Barry Goldwater’s press flack used to wage whenever the fiery Arizona Republican would spew some of his more passionate rhetoric. “What the senator meant to say” became something of a mantra for Goldwater’s PR team.

In most cases, it’s not that the person who says such things disavows precisely what he or she has said, it’s that he or she simply regrets being careless enough to say it.