Senator Conrad Burns of Montana, up for re—election, keeps sticking his foot in his mouth. The latest instance. via AP:

Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, whose re—election campaign is pressing for tighter immigration controls, referred to his house painter as "a nice little Guatemalan man" and suggested that worker as well as employees of a roofing company he hired might be in the country illegally.

"The other day, the little fella who does our maintenance work around the house, he's from Guatemala, and I said, 'Could I see your green card?'" Burns said at a June meeting recorded by Democrats. "And Hugo says, 'No.' I said, 'Oh, gosh.'"

Burns spokesman Jason Klindt said the worker, Hugo Reyes, is legally in the United States, owns a painting company and the senator "never had any doubt" that Reyes is a legal resident.

"He was telling an anecdotal story about a time he took the extra step to make sure a worker was legal," Klindt said. He added that Burns' description of Reyes as "little" was nothing more than a reference to his stature. He is 5 feet 3.

On the positive side, at least he did not call his painter macaca.

The last Rasmussen poll has Burns 47, Tester 47. Bush won the state by 20%.  If he jokes about a few more immigrants, insults firefighters and takes a few more checks from Abramoff clients, he might cinch his early retirement.

Richard Baehr   8 23 06