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In a dispute about how this country deals with race, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs nearly described Condoleezza Rice and other politicians as "cotton pickers" Monday. He was arguing against Rice's assertion that the nation has trouble talking about race when he made the slip.

"To hear a politician, whoever it may be, to talk about how difficult it is to talk about race? Well, the heck with them. We're living with the issue of race. We gotta be able to talk about it. And I can guarantee you this: Not a single one of these cotton … uh, these just ridiculous politicians should be the moderator on the issue of race," said Dobbs.

Click here to see Dobbs' entire commentary in a video on YouTube.

Rice, in an interview with the Washington Times, said that the United States still has trouble dealing with race because of a national "birth defect" that denied Black Americans the opportunities given to whites. "That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," Rice told the Washington Times.

Dobbs, on CNN's "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, responded to Rice's comments, saying that "most Americans don't have a problem talking about race. What we have is a problem of talking about race without fearing recrimination and distortion and someone using whatever comments were made for their own purposes--usually political purposes."

Dobbs is currently in a dog fight with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for his coverage of the immigration issue. NCLR and SPLC claim that Dobbs' coverage of immigration distorts the truth about undocumented workers and creates panic by wrongfully claiming that they bring disease to the United States and are stealing jobs from Americans.

For the record, the term "cotton-picking" refers to people who, of course, picked cotton, whether they were African slaves or whites or other people. The term's racist undertones and its meaning of a "contemptible person" date to around 1919, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary.

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