Here’s a quick question: what do you see, when you see this picture?  There are two answers.

(Via Colorado Observer)

If you’re a regular person, you see Eun Cha, war veteran, businessman, and naturalized citizen.  This is one of those guys who we’re thinking about when we talk about the American Dream, and how it can transform people’s lives; Mr. Cha emigrated to this country from South Korea, then built a life for himself and his family by working his way up through the Coors Brewing Company (this will be important later).  This is, in short, a guy who heard about America, thought that it was a great idea, and made it work for him – and by extension, us.

If you’re Ed Perlmutter, on the other hand, you see some evil Chinese guy out to steal good American jobs, or whatever the heck it is that Perlmutter thinks will pander to (the hopefully rare) racist voters in Colorado’s 7th district.

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Lakewood) was likely hoping to tap into voter worries about outsourcing when he unveiled an ad this week claiming that his Republican challenger, former CoorsTek CEO Joe Coors, shipped American jobs overseas.  But the tactic may have backfired on the embattled three-term lawmaker, who is now facing allegations that the controversial ad amounts to race baiting.

“As CEO of CoorsTek, [Joe] Coors outsourced manufacturing jobs to Asia,” Perlmutter says in a voiceover, as a shot of two Asian businessmen standing in front of a large sign printed in Korean script flashes on the screen.

As you might have guessed, Mr. Cha is one of those two individuals, and he was not exactly pleased to see a race-baiting Democratic Congressman smear his good name by implying that he was stealing American jobs (I would also suspect that Mr. Cha is also not pleased that Perlmutter apparently can’t tell the difference between a Korean and a Han Chinese*).  It need hardly be noted that Perlmutter is as incorrect as he is xenophobic: Mr. Cha’s role in the supposed ‘outsourcing’ was in “acquiring a local Korean company to provide for the needs of CoorsTek customers that had Asian operations, provide for a gateway of further US exports into Korea, and to create more jobs in the U.S.”  It also need hardly be noted that Ed Perlmutter doesn’t particularly feel the need to apologize to an inconvenient minority businessman and war veteran who has dared stand in the way of the holy cause of allowing Ed Perlmutter to stay in office for two more years.  So what does need to be noted?  Well, for a start: why the heck is this racist miserable wretch still in office? Oh, right: Joe Coors hasn’t won the election.

Yet.  Click on this link to help him do that.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: If you’re trying to remember who Ed Perlmutter is… he’s a guy. Who does stuff. Sometimes, with multiple takes.

*I know that this may shock Ed Perlmutter, but Asians don’t all look alike.