Sen. Brown: I was talking about sex, not KKK

The racially charged flap involving state Sen. Robert Brown, D-Macon, and state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, got more bizarre Thursday.

Brown, the Senate Democratic leader, hastily called a news conference at Macon City Hall and handed out a statement claiming comments he made earlier in the week referred to Republican sexual hijinks rather than the Ku Klux Klan. The senator then fled without taking questions.

Reached shortly afterward, Peake dismissed Brown’s response out of hand.

“I think anybody that hears this or reads this will understand how ridiculous or baseless this claim is,” Peake said. “It’s clearly a tactic to divert attention from his comments. It’s ridiculous.”

During a Tuesday taping of WMAZ-TV’s “Close-Up” -- which first aired at 5:30 p.m. Thursday -- Brown said, “Two or three days prior to an election, I’ve had people say, ‘My wife came home from church, and there was this flier that they were putting out saying I’m a baby killer.’ And then, in less than three weeks after the election, this guy goes over to the Republican Party, the folks who had called him a baby killer. I mean, what does the wife do then, put on some red sheets on the bed and say ‘You know we can get rid of the blue sheets, but keep the white one over there because we might need that one for the midnight meeting.’ ”

Peake said Brown’s controversial comments were made during part of the WMAZ interview that focused on seven or eight Democrats who switched parties.

Brown didn’t name any legislators, but Peake later said Brown was clearly comparing Republicans to the Ku Klux Klan. Peake called on him to apologize.

“To insinuate that myself or my colleagues or party switchers like Bubber Epps, my good friend, have any association with the Ku Klux Klan is just reprehensible,” Peake said.

Brown is black while Peake and Epps are white. Earlier this month, Epps switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party.

Brown initially refused to say whether he was referring to the KKK and declined to describe the clip’s context. But then he scheduled what he said would be a “major political announcement” for noon at City Hall. Brown is rumored to be considering a run next year for mayor of Macon, although he has not publicly announced he will run.

Arriving half an hour late, Brown breezed past a bank of TV cameras in the City Hall lobby, followed by two men. Inside City Council chambers, he directed one man to move the speaker’s lectern about a dozen feet to one side. Brown waited behind the repositioned lectern for the cameras to set up again.

His tardiness was partly due to a search for a functioning copy machine, he said, apologizing for the poor quality of his pre-printed statement.

Brown said he sought twice to speak directly to Peake, but was rebuffed, so he called a news conference instead.

“Let me say in all candor, I do not make statements in some idle way,” Brown said. Had he meant his “midnight meeting” comment as Peake has interpreted, he would have stated that explicitly, Brown said.

Peake, however, said Thursday afternoon that Brown’s news announcement was the first he’d heard of a request for further discussion.

“I’ve checked all my phone messages and answering machines, I’ve checked all my e-mail. I haven’t had any contact from Senator Brown at all,” he said. “I would be more than glad to chat with him. ... All I’m asking is for him to apologize to me or whomever he was referring to, and I think that’s only fair.”

Brown said he wants to discuss the matter with Peake face to face, in public. He then laid a stack of papers titled “Robert Brown’s modest response to Rep. Peake’s apology request” on the corner of the lectern. Then he rushed out of the room.

In the written statement, Brown said Peake didn’t ask for any clarification immediately after the WMAZ taping.

“When I referred to the bed sheets and meetings, I was thinking of the sexual trysts many Republicans have either been found guilty of or alleged to have participated in while serving in state government,” Brown’s statement says.

In particular, Brown was referring to former Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson and “reports of travel companions with other Republican legislators with women other than their wives,” according to the statement. “These newly minted Republicans will now have an opportunity to participate in the midnight meetings and get their fix in Speaker Richardson’s memorial suite at Motel 6.”

Richardson, R-Hiram, resigned in January 2010 over a sex-and-lobbying scandal.

Heading off on a new topic, Brown’s statement says it would help if Gov.-elect Nathan Deal would “clarify his remarks about ‘ghetto grand mamas’ in his discussion of Georgia’s voter ID law.”

Deal remarked to a Cherokee County Republican gathering in October 2009 that “ghetto grandmothers” often lacked official birth certificates for voter identification. He apologized the next day.

Finally, Brown’s statement calls again for Peake to meet with him and discuss “these and other issues raised or implied in his request for an apology.”

While Peake said he’s willing to talk with Brown, he’s not interested in further public dispute.

“This is the final time I’m going to talk about this,” Peake said. “He made the statement. He knows what he said. I’m going to focus on what people elected me to do.”