Boston, MA (AHN) - Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney apologizes for calling Boston's embattled Big Dig construction project a "tar baby" during an Iowa fundraiser.

The possible 2008 presidential candidate says he was unaware anyone would be offended by the phrase when he used it during a speech to about 100 Republicans in Ames on Saturday.

He admitted taking a political risk when he took control of the construction project after a fatal tunnel ceiling collapse. However, he said not doing anything would have been worse.

Romney said, "The best thing politically would be to stay as far away from that tar baby as I can."

Black political leaders consider "tar baby" a racial epithet, and were outraged by his use of the term. The phrase comes from 19th century Uncle Remus stories in which a doll made of tar traps Br'er Rabbit. It has been used to describe a sticky mess. It has also been used as an offensive term for a black person.

Larry Jones, a black Republican and civil rights activist, says, "Tar baby is a totally inappropriate phrase in the 21st century."

He adds, "He thinks he's presidential timber... But all he's shown us is arrogance."

Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, says the governor was describing "a sticky situation."

Fehrnstrom says, "He was unaware that some people find the term objectionable and he's sorry if anyone's offended."

Fehrnstrom produced copies of editorials and columns from Boston newspapers using "tar baby" in a context similar to Romney's. One Boston Herald editorial from 2004 also had used the term about the Big Dig.

"It just goes to show you that not everyone is aware the term is considered offensive to some people," he said.

White House spokesman Tony Snow sparked similar criticism in May (see below) when he used the term in response to a question about government surveillance.

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Hugging the Tar Baby (27 May 2006)

As if yet another white guy needs to opine on this matter, here come my thoughts on Tony snow's recent stumble. To wit: hugging the tar baby.

Snow was asked a question, in his first press conference as the new BushCo mouthpiece, which invited what to him seemed tp be speculation. Not wanting to be drawn into making a statement he might have to parse later, he said:

"I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program - the alleged program - the existence of which I can neither confirm nor deny."

Personally, I can't understand how any intelligent individual in such a position can falter so badly coming out of the gate. Perhaps my generation is more sensitive to language. Perhaps Snow was showing his Fox News colors. Whatever the case, I have read and heard many reactions. They run the gamut from white commentators expressing offense to black commentators saying, "oh, please, let's just move on."

Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby (see story [HTML])

As for myself, I fall somewhere between the two. When I heard Snow's comment, I thought, "one step forward, two steps back," as I often find myself thinking about the Bush administration. While the phrase, 'tar baby,' has negative racial connotations, it is also a traditional reference drawn from African storytelling, referring to a doll made of wax or tar, intended to entrap someone or something. Therefore, Snow was right in wanting to avoid being trapped by hugging the tar baby. Stating it as he did, however, was inappropriate for a member of an American administration.

Suppose the following exchange:

QUESTION: Tony, is the President at all interested in taking an active role in alleviating the rising price of gas?

SNOW: David, there are many options on the table, but the President considers it premature to try jewing down the petroleum industry. Next... Yes, Helen?

QUESTION: Did I just hear you say "jewing down?"

SNOW: I'm sorry, Helen, but I wasn't listening, and you'll have to wait for the transcript.

QUESTION: But I'm sure you said 'jewing down.' Isn't that a bit offensive?

SNOW: Helen, I'm not going to hug that tar baby right now.

QUESTION: Now it's tar baby? Tony, are you sure you're qualified to be acting as the press face of the Bush Administration?

SNOW: I won't honor that with a response. I'd turn off your mike, but I haven't learned how to operate the system, yet... It's fairly well gerry-rigged.

QUESTION: I think Helen has a point. Why are you using such insensitive language? Jewing down, tar baby, and gerry-rigged?

SNOW: Look, David, it's just words. I could just as well as answered with long, drawn-out responses, but the use of certain colloquiallisms hastens the process. I simply value your time and my own.

QUESTION: But these words are fairly inflammatory, don't you...

SNOW: David, it's simply that I am willing to call a spade a spade...

QUESTION: Spade? Do you know what you're saying?

SNOW: I'm sorry, but we need to move things along, so I am sorry to act so niggardly with the length of my responses.

QUESTION: OK, that's one that sounds bad, but really is just archaic.

SNOW: Really? I was reaching there. I thought I'd found a real winner of an answer...

SNOW: Helen, you don't have to leave, we have more ground to cover...

QUESTION: Well, tony, are you going to answer us at length or are you going to waste our time? It took me longer to sharpen my pencil than it has for you to cover, really, no ground here.

SNOW: Well, we've given you a lot of time...

QUESTION: And you've taken over the conference with...

SNOW: Are you calling me an Indian giver? is that what you're saying?

QUESTION: not at all, I simply...

SNOW: Well, I don't know if you think I'm yellow or something, but I am willing to take your questions here and answer satisfactorily...

QUESTION: But why the slurs?

SNOW: Oh, I'm not hugging THAT tar baby ......

There. Now that it's out of my system, I can move on.

(see original at Paul Taylor's blogspot)

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Gerry-rig vs Jerry-rig vs Jury-rig vs Jerry-built, etc.

The terms "gerry-rig", "jerry-rig", "jury-rig" and their various alternate spellings and derivatives are often confused.

In Paul Taylor's text above, "jerry-rig" was a probable misuse of that term with the intention of an ethnic slur on "Jerries" (or "Gerries"), a common reference among British and American soldiers in both World Wars I and II for German (GER as an abbreviation for "Germany" = the English pronunciation "Jer" expanded to the common English name "Jerry"?).

However, in the context of Taylor's text, the meaning of "gerry-rigged" when referring to the microphone system is almost certainly the relatively common technical slang for an apparatus which has been hastily constructed for lack of time or tools to do it more properly.

This in turn is similar to "jury-rig", which is not connected with "juries" in the judicial sense, even if meddling in the selection or operation of a jury is known as "jury-rigging" or "jury-tampering." In the "make-do" sense of "jury-rig," the word "jury" was originally a naval term for any makeshift contrivance substituting for the real thing in an emergency, first found in the early 17th century in the term "jury-mast," a temporary mast constructed in place of one that had been broken. There's some debate about where the word "jury" in this sense came from, with the leading (but unverified) theory being that it was short for "injury."

To say that something is "jerry-rigged" is to mix idioms (in addition to substituting a "j" for the "g"), because the proper term is "jerrybuilt." A "jerrybuilder," a term dating to 19th-century England, was originally a house builder who constructed flimsy homes from inferior materials.

It is unlikely that the "jerry" in "jerry-built" is the same as the 20th century slang for Germans [e.g. Jerry, or Jerries or Gerries]. Whatever German soldiers were known for by English and American soldiers during the two World Wars, it was certainly not for the shabby or improvised quality of their weaponry; indeed quite the opposite.

The "jerry" in the term may have been a real person known for the practice [e.g. 'Jerry the house-builder'], or may be a mangled form of "jury," as in "jury-rigged." "Jerrybuilt" may have arisen separately from "jury-rig," as their senses are slightly different. Something that is "jury-rigged" is concocted on the spur of the moment to meet an emergency, but something "jerrybuilt" is deliberately constructed of inferior materials to turn a quick buck.