Isakson apologizes for ‘unwashed' remark

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

WASHINGTON -- Amid rising heat over recent comments in which he referred to voters as the "unwashed," Sen. Johnny Isakson issued an apology Thursday, saying he meant no harm.

"It was a poor choice of words," Isakson said in a statement Thursday. "I didn't mean anything derogatory by it, and I sincerely apologize."

The apology came two days after Isakson, an incumbent who's up for re-election, made an off-the-cuff remark about a speech that Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle of Nevada gave to him and other Republican senators on Capitol Hill.

"It wasn't the kind of speech you would give to the unwashed back home," Isakson said of Angle's talk. His comments first appeared on a Fox News Web site. "She was talking to her colleagues."

Liberal and anti-incumbent bloggers quickly picked up on Isakson's comments. By Thursday, he was getting criticism from all corners of the Internet.

"It's nice to know what Sen. Isakson really thinks of his constituents [myself included] back home," wrote one blogger on the site www.mydd.com. "We'll see what the so-called ‘unwashed' in Georgia have to say in November."

"If you have no respect for your constituents, you will not be in office for very long," wrote a commenter on the Talking Points Memo Web site. "Look for trouble in the primaries."

Isakson doesn't actually have a challenger in the July 20 GOP primary.

Two Democratic challengers, state Labor Secretary Michael Thurmond and former Rockdale County Chief of Staff R.J. Hadley, are trying to replace him in November.