Today at the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing for Elena Kegan, the GOP contingent pulled a ploy that has gotten much press here and elswhere, attempting to "taint" Kagan's reputation by linking her to the great Supreme Court Justice she once clerked for, Thurgood Marshall. As has been pointed out voluminously in the hours after the hearing, it was very stupid politics. I won't waste anybody's time belaboring that obvious point.
Beyond the insane political calculations they must have made in deciding to trash a true hero of US history, there was (as is ever the case these days) a huge undercurrent of racist pandering in this sad tactical salvo. But one Senator named Hatch, rather than rehash the usual set of code words (you know, the catch prases that allow national pols to intimate their allegiance to the old racist regime - as well as to that faction of the tea party that fully embraces it - without actually saying "nigger" or "kike"), actually tripped right over that old codeword boundary line, into pure Plantation-speak.