Obama campaign manager Jim Messina quoted the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank on Twitter on Wednesday taking a shot at Republican outreach to Latino voters.
Line of the day from WAPO’s Dana Milbank: “The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos.”
— Jim Messina (@Messina2012) February 15, 2012
The borrowed line caused an avalanche of outrage from Republicans who said the comment is insensitive and off the mark. Bettina Inclan, the Director of Hispanic Outreach for the Republican National Committee (RNC) retweeted a rebuke of Messina’s tweet from Puerto Rican lawyer Samuel Rosado.
@SARosado: Hey @Messina2012, not to try and insult your intelligence or anything, but not all Hispanics are about chimichangas.
— Bettina Inclan (@BettinaInclan) February 15, 2012
RNC Political Director Rick Wiley also jumped into the fray.
Really @messina2010, you might need to call your own office on the ridiculous tweet re: chimichanga’s.Very insensitive bro
— Rick Wiley (@rick_wiley) February 15, 2012
Two hours later Wiley added, “Hey @messina2012 you are drawing heat for your tweet. Put your helmet on bro, only going to get worse.”
Lachlan Markay of the conservative Heritage Foundation invoked the names of top Latino politicians:
Methinks @MarcoRubio @BrianSandoval and @luis_fortuno (among others) might take issue with @Messina2012’s last tweet.
— Lachlan Markay (@LachlanMarkay) February 15, 2012
Latino cartoonist and the possible man behind the popular twitter account @MexicanMitt came to the defense of Messina, taking on both Markay and Wiley.
Bullcrap. It’s TRUE. What else do they have to offer? NADA.@rick_wileyvia @storify
— Lalo Alcaraz (@laloalcaraz) February 15, 2012
Adding:
Wow, your fake outrage,it’s so…, uh, what’s the word- FAKE. @becs09via @storify
— Lalo Alcaraz (@laloalcaraz) February 15, 2012
The furor over the chimichanga tweet led to the hashtag #chimichangate which saw 30 tweets in three hours, though most were from conservative businessman and cartoonist @SooperMexican.
Three hours after the tweet in question, Messina returned:
Tweeting someone else’s words caused a stir, but the GOP is on the wrong side of every Hispanic voter priority:bit.ly/A6BTk4
— Jim Messina (@Messina2012) February 15, 2012
Messina’s link leads to an Obama campaign memo saying the GOP has already lost the Latino vote in 2012.
