Last week, after Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office announced a new Spanish-language version of the attorney general’s website, Rep. Jon Hubbard (R-Jonesboro) fired off a couple of angry e-mails to McDaniel, copying reporters for the Associated Press and Jonesboro Sun and a host of fellow legislators among others on the messages. Taking a familiar bigoted tack, Hubbard suggested that the website afforded Hispanics special treatment and that McDaniel was “pandering” to Hispanics for their future votes.
McDaniel’s forceful response deserves a direct quote:
“We have legal citizens of this state who pay taxes and serve in the military and also speak Spanish. Our website has been updated to include Spanish sections to better serve those citizens. It cost the taxpayers not one dime to include this service, for two reasons: 1. We have had a Spanish version of our website for many years; and 2. Updating the translation and making the website more user friendly was done by my existing staff, including a naturalized U.S. citizen who speaks Spanish fluently. In short, I find your tone insulting and your premise to be without merit. I will refrain from characterizing your motivation, but one could easily infer that you are simply an angry, misguided person. I was proud to represent Jonesboro in the House seat you now occupy. Your lack of civility and substance, not limited to publishing my personal e-mail address and blind copying the press on your e-mail, make me embarrassed that you represent our community. No further comment on this issue is warranted, and your future angry e-mails will be forwarded to the press and will go unanswered.”