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Under fire, GOP Senate candidate Mike Parry apologizes for some online comments

By Doug Grow | 01/06/10

Mike Parry, the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate to succeed Republican Dick Day in Senate District 26, apparently has decided it’s easier — and perhaps wiser — to apologize than to explain. Or at least, kind of apologize.

Parry, who has taken a beating from some on the blogosphere for offensive comments he apparently had written on his Twitter account, has tried a couple of approaches to solving the problem of his own words. First, he apparently attempted to erase at least some of the more offensive words. Second, he was defensive when explaining some of his tweets.

Today, he was apologetic while still still blasting away at “wasteful spending.”

“I sincerely apologize for past tweets which were written in haste and out of the frustration I felt for the out of control spending in Washington,” the Waseca businessman said in a statement. “Given the fragile state of our economy and the kind of out of control and wasteful spending we’re seeing from Democrats, the people in Senate District 26 must have an election about the future.”

This apology may not get Parry entirely off the hook. Calling President Obama “a power-hungry, arrogant black man” as Parry did in one tweet, doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with economics.

If nothing else, those sorts of words have raised Parry’s profile in the world of blogs. Why, because of Parry’s words, this little state Senate race even is getting mentions on the Huffington Post.

His words also led to him being blasted today by the DFL at a news conference.

“Mike Parry has said that he is not afraid of political correctness, but his actions tell a different story,’’ said DFL Chairman Brian Melendez. “As a candidate for elected office, he needs to answer the questions that these statements have raised rather than glossing over them with a glib answer and pleading ignorance with technology. Minnesotans deserve to know the truth.”

Parry, who won GOP endorsement last week, is to face the DFL’s Jason Engbrecht in a Jan. 26 special election to fill the vacancy created when Day stepped down to become a president of an organization seeking to legalize casino-type gambling at the state’s two racetracks.

Engbrecht is a St. Olaf College professor who lives in Faribault.

Comments (5)

Submitted by Thomas Swift on January 7, 2010 - 11:43am.

How odd it is, to witness a group of people that just put a man in the US Senate, whose qualifications for the job (other than an erratic temperament) consist solely of writing highly offensive books and racist\misogynist jokes, now rise in red faced indignation to complain of poor taste.

Labeling P-BO "a power-hungry, arrogant black man" does indeed run afoul of conservative approbation as we do not hold the color of his skin to have any bearing on the colossal failure he is orchestrating.

However we are no more surprised, or outraged by the assignment of Obama's failures as having anything to do with his skin color than we are by the rafts of invective heaped upon (fill in the blank) "white men" by leftists.

Perhaps, in retrospect, Mr. Parry would have been wise to compete for the Democrat endorsement.

Submitted by Eric Ferguson on January 7, 2010 - 11:44am.

Right, he wasn't a racist until government spending drove him to it. Seriously, does anyone believe campaign volunteers were doing the scrubbing? If he's giving out the password to his twitter account to some volunteers, can I volunteer and get the password to his e-mail?

Submitted by Jeremy Powers on January 7, 2010 - 12:18pm.

I think Parry, like the other hard-core Republican's opinion in the comments, show more that he is living in La-La land. He doesn't understand that Obama inherited the single worst presidential scenario since the Great Depression and has done more in one year than all the Republican presidents did in the entire 20th Century.

I'm less worried about his racist Tweets than I am about the fact that when he gets to Saint Paul he's not going to have a half a clue about the complexities of our state government and will instead be reciting stupid Republican mantras of No New Taxes, Tax Cuts, Keep Government Out of My Medicare, etc.

Maybe he should run for office in the State of Denial.

Submitted by Bruce Anderson on January 7, 2010 - 1:18pm.

Come on Doug! You make no mention of the Independence Party candidate in this three-way race. Is it intentional?

Let me complete your close for you:

Parry, who won GOP endorsement last week, is to face the DFL’s Jason Engbrecht AND THE IP'S ROY SRP in a Jan. 26 special election to fill the vacancy created when Day stepped down to become a president of an organization seeking to legalize casino-type gambling at the state’s two racetracks.

ROY SRP IS THE MAYOR OF WASECA.

Engbrecht is a St. Olaf College professor who lives in Faribault.

Submitted by Laura Knudsen on January 7, 2010 - 10:22pm.

If not mentioning Roy Srp, the leading candidate and a popular 3 term mayor, is not intentional it is at least sloppy journalism! If Minnpost wants to remain a quality information sight they need to stop this kind of reporting.