Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu is not my favorite Democratic senator.  Truth be known, on my list of likes she’s somewhere around Tierra Del Fuego.

She ain’t much of a Democrat so I was shocked when I heard her say that the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans.”  I know that’s pretty much a DUH statement but coming from Landrieu, it’s something.

Well, the minute she said that, the wheels came off hell’s hot rod.

Republicans are calling on Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to apologize after she suggested Thursday that President Barack Obama’s deep unpopularity in the South is partly tied to race.

The comments came after an NBC reporter asked the senator why Obama has such low approval ratings in Louisiana. Landrieu’s first response was that the president’s energy policies are deeply disliked by residents of the oil and gas-rich state.

She then added, “I’ll be very, very honest with you. The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans. It’s been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader.”

Now, to you and me, that’s a pretty tame statement.  It’s a fact based on the Civil War, Governor Orval Faubus standing in the school house door, Bull Conner turning the dogs on freedom fighters, Rosa Parks going to jail, Alabama State Troopers standing at the entrance to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the bodies of four little black girls in a Birmingham church, the first bus boycott in Baton Rouge, the voting rights act, and damn Dixie flag still flying in Louisiana.

State Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere issued a statement late Thursday calling Landrieu’s remarks “insulting to me and to every other Louisianian.”

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal issued a statement calling Landrieu’s comments “remarkably divisive.”

Oh give me a headache and a half.  Racism is not divisive but speaking about it is? “The Governor doth protest too much, methinks.”

Now if Landrieu does apologize, I’m going to call her office and make biological sounds into the phone.