Frank Artiles Speaks in a Florida Legislative Venue

Florida state senator Frank Artiles, thuggish jerk-wad and Republican, proved himself morally unfit to represent the the people of that state. I, personally, wouldn’t be surprised if he had proven himself to be unfit long before recent events. But not living anywhere near Florida, I don’t follow their intrastate politics. (For those not in the know, Artiles suddenly received a spate of negative press this week after he called other state senators “niggers,” “bitch,” and “girl” in addition to the more generic “fucking assholes” which, while impolitic, doesn’t rely on sexism or racism for its impact.)

Still, even from my distance I could see that his racist, sexist ranting proved this douchegabber a blot on the state legislature. Hell, he proved himself a blot on the very institution of lawmaking. But in an unusual display of self-awareness for someone as racist and sexist as he is, Artiles actually resigned his senate seat. This is particularly surprising as immediately after the incident became public, in part because he had refused to apologize which apparently made colleagues more willing to open up to the press about it, Artiles attempted to defend his actions. My favorite part of his defense? That he had been misheard, and that while other people had thought he called his colleagues “niggers” he had in fact called them “niggaz”. Which, of course, makes everything okay. Or something. Seriously, I thought he was more likely send out another defensive statement asserting that he’d only spouted racism because he’s been watching The Wire lately. But nope, apparently something kicked in – perhaps, and I’m not willing to bet money on this, but perhaps even his Republican colleagues privately argued that his behavior was reprehensible and did not meet Republican expectations. Whatever it was, however, it was enough: Artiles has officially resigned.

Congratulations to Floridians and good riddance to Artiles. May he have some serious time off to reflect on his misdeeds before anyone trusts him with a job again.