Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick used the way-back machine to pull out what he obviously meant as an insult against Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, calling him “light in the loafers.” Patrick was a guest on the Fox News show The Ingraham Angle with host Laura Ingraham where he made odd inferences, calling O’Rourke “a moron” for his take on immigration.
Patrick came out loaded for bear with insults about the candidate as a person and about his view on the issues. The Daily Beast reports that Patrick opened up by saying that O’Rourke was “a moron” for stating that illegal immigrants are living in “modern day bondage” because they always have to worry their status will be used against them by employers or others, which keeps them “living in the shadows.”
He continued by saying that the candidate from Texas “has no substance” because he is supporting reparations for descendants of slaves. Patrick wondered aloud if we were “ever going to let that go.”
Ingraham concurred, asking what happened to O’Rourke; what went wrong along the way?
“Whatever happened to this guy?! What happened to this guy? Wasn’t he a little more reasonable not so long ago? Was he always this left wing? He never left the punk-rock weird.”
https://twitter.com/uhsaywhatnow/status/1123090100198543360
In an effort to explain what he thinks is wrong with O’Rourke, the Baltimore-born Dannie Scott Goeb took an odd turn, questioning the presidential candidate’s sexuality.
“He is so light in the loafers he floats off the ground at times,” Patrick stated.
This old-timey reference to someone being a homosexual may not be familiar to some, but Phrases.org describes “light in the loafers” as a reference to a man having female qualities.
“Light in the loafers — or light on one’s feet — (of men) effeminate or homosexual. 1967 DAS ( Dictionary of American Speech ) (Supp.) Lightfooted.Homosexual. Fairly common since c1955.”
Even Ingraham was caught off guard by this assertion and tried to give Patrick a way out of the hole he had dug for himself.
“You just meant not consequential, correct? You didn’t mean any pejorative, right?”
But there was no helping the Texas lieutenant governor. He then added that O’Rourke “flaps his arms a lot,” saying that people could get the wrong idea.
“I mean he’s a lightweight.”
Of the criticisms that Beto O’Rourke has faced, a challenge to his sexual preferences has never been raised previously. Although people have remarked about his energy level and enthusiasm, Patrick’s comments seemed to come out of nowhere.