A Teachable Moment Is Upon Us.

U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) declared on a Spanish-language radio station that the Vietnamese are trying to capture her seat.  The story is garnering attention far beyond the boundaries of Ms. Sanchez’s southern California district.  The seven-term member of Congress called her opponent in what has been a safe Democratic district, “this Van Trann….very anti-immigrant and very anti-Hispanic.”

The Republican Mr. Trann, a member of the California legislature, was evacuated from Vietnam in 1975 by the U.S. Army as Communists closed in on Saigon.

Nasty Ms. Sanchez, known as Loretta Brixley when she ran for office as a Republican, will have to come up with a better explanation than she only meant the Vietnamese who don’t support her are anti-Hispanic.  This is the sort of veil-slipping that can cause an avalanche of contributions for the target of the ugly rhetoric, and suddenly there’s a race.