Really?

In an interview with City Hall News, which you can read here, Rep. Carolyn Maloney made a pretty huge mistake. She dropped the n-bomb.

Here’s the offending paragraph: There is Carolyn Maloney, ripping into Kirsten Gillibrand broad and hard for voting against the two stimulus bills and for changing her positions on several core Democratic issues, sounding out her case on the fly as, “It’s the NRA, it’s immigration, it’s all these other things. In fact, I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said [Gillibrand] went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only [education]. And he said, ‘It was like saying n—r to a Puerto Rican,’” she said, using the full racial slur. “I don’t know—I don’t know if that’s true or not. I just called. I’m just throwing that out. All of her—well, what does she stand for?”

Maloney isn’t a big fan of Gillibrand, and plans on challenging her for New York’s Senate seat when Gillibrand is up for re-election. I’m pretty sure she just ruined her chances.

I mean, look, the establishment is pretty much already lined up behind Gillibrand. She has Schumer, which is pretty much all anyone could ever need in New York State. Besides a few holdouts, she’s got strong support and looks pretty solid. It was a tough enough road to hoe.

Now, I’m not even going to get into the nature or meaning of the n-bomb. Maloney’s use of it, even in relaying a story from someone else, is problematic for one simple reason: She said it to a reporter. Maybe you can get away with saying the word to someone behind closed doors, but to a reporter? Who is writing a story about you? C’mon! Sharpton is eating this up.

The simple fact is this: If you think it’s OK to say something like that to a reporter you are not ready to be a U.S. Senator. Simple as that.

Really, she’s lucky City Hall News didn’t put a big pull-quote on the front page, or a headline like: “Maloney drops political bombshell on herself.” Instead, they put it in the story and left it at that.

Doesn’t matter. The damage is done.