Italian, Iraqi ... does it matter?

Apparently not to Senator Jim Bunning

The ever-eloquent Senator Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) made a crack that "got a lot of laughs" at a Republican event on March 20, 2004.

What he said was that his presumed opponent in the November election "looks like one of Saddam Hussein's sons."

His presumed opponent is state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo. "Mongiardo" sounds Italian to me - not Iraqi or in any way Muslim - and state Sen. Mongiardo certainly possesses an Italian countenance. Rather attractive, even.

An Italian countenance, one might say, very unlike the appearance of either of Saddam's acknowledged sons Uday and Qusay.

Bunning, on the other hand, is a pasty white man (to the point of becoming a deep pink in his declining years), and evidently Northwest European in origin. No Mediterranean blood here.

Now, I have nothing against pasty white people of Northwest European extraction; I fall into that category myself. English, German, Dutch and Irish. The difference between Bunning and me is that I don't make bad jokes about the resemblance of any particular person to a known villain.

OK, there was this one guy in the early 80's; I used to see him at a bar I frequented at the time. He looked like Bani-Sadr, the Iranian spokesman. The squarish plastic spectacle frames completed the visage. I commented a few times to friends in a hushed voice, "look! It's Bani-Sadr!"

But then Bani-Sadr wasn't necessarily evil. He was Ayatollah Khomeini's propaganda minister, yes, but he wasn't the Ayatollah.

If I wanted to make unpleasant visual comparisons, I could say, oh ... G.W. Bush bears an extraordinary resemblance to a chimpanzee; Cheney looks like Jabba the Hut; if Rumsfeld squinted and waved his hands about much more, his eyeballs would pop out and he'd smack at least one of them across the room, etc.

But I'm above such things. I won't bother spewing such venomous bile. That's such a Republican trait. Won't go there; wouldn't be prudent.