Saturday, December 21, 2002

"My Wife Said I Was A Coward"...Painting the Lawn Jockey White

Cass Bellenger returns in a worthy sequel with the symbol of the new GOP: now our lawn jockeys are painted over!

Ballenger said Tommy Luckadoo, who runs his 10th Congressional
District office, had come over that morning and painted the black
lawn jockey.

"(Luckadoo) was saying it was sort of like Trent Lott being the
image of the Republican Party," Ballenger said. "That little black
jockey could be the image of the Republican Party here, and he
didn't want that to happen. I didn't care ... Now he's a little white
jockey.

"My wife said I was a coward. I said it was removing something
that Democrats could use as an image to attack Republicans
here...."

Luckadoo said he primed the 3 1/2-foot, cast-iron statue as part
of an overdue restoration. But he said he's been urging Ballenger
for years to change the statue.


Critics of the statues see them as insulting caricatures. Ballenger's
jockey has sparked controversy for 20 years.


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