Maybe He Meant Ra-coon

3/23/06

Dave Lenihan, a radio host for KTRS-AM out of St. Louis, was sacked yesterday after a "slip of the tongue" in which he called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a "coon," in so many words.

Lenihan, who says he likes Rice a great deal, apparently had a cranium meltdown whenever discussing the recent announcement the recent retirement of the NFL commissioner, a job in which Rice has long expressed interest. Here's what Lenihan said:

"She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."

Oops. You might call using Rice's name and a racial slur in the same paragraph a bit of a blooper...in the same way you might say Iraq has "a bit of a civil unrest problem." It doesn't seem as though Lenihan actually meant to call Sec. Rice a coon, but that seems like a pretty odd blunder, and why the devil did he repeat it? And upon repeating it, why didn't he explain what he really meant to say? When contacted later at his home Lenihan said he meant to say "coup." That seems reasonable, in a weird sort of way, I suppose.

Freudian slip or not, the GM and station manager for KTRS Tim Dorsey said that it was "unacceptable, reprehensible and unforgivable."

"I was trying to say 'quite a coup' but it came out coon," said Lenihan, "I caught myself and apologized. It wasn't anything I was meaning to say. I never use that word."

I like to think that Lenihan did just make an error, but man, when he does it he goes whole-hog. I remember one time I meant to ask a Jewish deli owner for a pastrami sandwich and "I'll have it on rye," came out as "I'll have it on big-nosed, horned kike!" So I can feel Lenihan's pain.