Incoming Nevada Speaker Ira Hansen (R) told the Las Vegas Review Journal that his comments made as a newspaper columnist and talk radio host almost 20 years ago — including referring to blacks as “simple minded darkies” — were “taken out of context,” and were meant to be “purposely provocative in various political, cultural and religious views.”

The Reno News and Review dug up the past writings of Nevada Assembly speaker-designate Ira Hansen (R) which would make him “one of the most controversial speakers in Nevada history.”

“While members of the GOP caucus talked about a united front, they selected as speaker a legislator who is one of the most contentious public officials in the state. Hansen doesn’t like blacks, gays, Israel, many Republicans, and most Nevadans—he once wrote that newcomers to the state, who constitute four of every five Nevadans, should accept Nevada as it is or leave.”

Here are a couple choice quotes:

On race: “The relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple minded darkies. For American blacks, being denied choice and forced to attend the failing and inferior government school system is a form of involuntary servitude. Let’s call it what it truly is—educational slavery.”

On women: “Today, when Army men look at women in the ranks with ’longing in their eyes’ it very well may constitute ’sexual harassment.’ The truth is, women do not belong in the Army or Navy or Marine Corps, except in certain limited fields.”