Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign spent Sunday deflecting scrutiny of a report in The Washington Post detailing a West Texas hunting camp he once leased with his father that includes a racial epithet in its name.
It is the latest in a series of controversies the candidate has contended with in recent weeks as he seeks to retain the front-runner status he quickly claimed after entering the race seven weeks ago. Perry created a stir Saturday when he told a crowd of New Hampshire Republicans that he would consider sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat drug violence there.
Sunday's story detailed Perry's association with a property known as "Niggerhead," a
It is the latest in a series of controversies the candidate has contended with in recent weeks as he seeks to retain the front-runner status he quickly claimed after entering the race seven weeks ago. Perry created a stir Saturday when he told a crowd of New Hampshire Republicans that he would consider sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat drug violence there.
Sunday's story detailed Perry's association with a property known as "Niggerhead," a
name
that was painted in block letters across a large rock flanking the
property's entrance. Perry has called the name "offensive" and said his
father painted over the word shortly after leasing the land.
That account differs from the recollections of seven people cited in
the story, and it remains unclear when or whether Perry dealt with the
name while using the camp.
One of Perry's rivals for the GOP nomination, former Godfather's Pizza executive Herman Cain,
criticized Perry in appearances on "Fox News Sunday" and ABC's "This
Week" as tolerating the sign on a property he used. Civil rights
activist Al Sharpton called for Perry to explain more fully his
relationship to the property or bow out of the presidential race."There isn't a more vile, negative word than the n-word," Cain said on Fox. "And for him to
leave
it there as long as he did before he painted over it, it's just plain
insensitive to a lot of black people in this country."
The Perry campaign put out several statements seeking to control the damage and push back against Cain's remarks. "Mr. Cain is wrong about the Perry family's quick action to eliminate the word on the rock,
but
is right the word written by others long ago is insensitive and
offensive," said Ray Sullivan, communications director for Perry's campaign. "That is why the Perrys took quick action to cover and obscure it."
Perry has been dogged of late by uneven debate performances; outmuscled by the better-funded operation of his chief rival for the nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney;
and barraged with questions about whether some of his more
controversial statements hinder his electability in a potential
matchup against President Obama.Perry's remark Saturday about possibly putting U.S. troops in Mexico was quickly criticized by foreign-policy experts. They said sending forces into Mexico would be unacceptable to the Mexican people, who partly blame
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