Brent Regan speaks at Reagan Republican meeting

COEUR d'ALENE - Less than a week after making a controversial comment about President Barack Obama - joking the president is black and scary like an assault weapon - Coeur d'Alene School District board member Brent Regan was the featured speaker Thursday at a local Republican group's meeting.

Before delving into school district issues at the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans' meeting at The Fedora Pub and Grille, Regan spent about four minutes addressing his joke, which he made at a forum with eight state legislators and an audience of 100-plus people on Saturday at the Post Falls American Legion Post 143.

"It's been said that wisdom is that thing you get immediately after needing it desperately," Regan said Thursday.

That moment for him in this case was right before he said the following on Saturday during a conversation with legislators about proposed federal gun laws: "My wife and I were having this conversation and I said, 'They can't figure out what an assault weapon is - it's just black and it looks scary.' And she looks at me and says, 'Well, so is Obama.'"

He said he soon became sorry about the comment after getting a call from a woman who was genuinely upset by his words.

A different woman, Lori Kaye Gaboury, of Coeur d'Alene, who has a 30-year-old daughter who is of mixed race, attended the Reagan Republican meeting to confront Regan.

Gaboury asked Regan during a question-and-answer portion of the meeting if Regan would have made the black joke about Obama if her daughter had been present.

Regan responded, "No, I probably wouldn't have."

He added, "We're all human. I'm human. I make mistakes."

He has learned from this one, he said.

After the meeting, in an interview, Gaboury said Regan's apology falls short and it came too late.

"It doesn't take somebody a day-and-a-half to decide he was wrong," she said, adding she was disappointed to see him initially defending his comments.

"He called people who thought he was a racist racists," Gaboury said.

Al Williams, director of athletics at North Idaho College, was in attendance at the Reagan Republican meeting and found Regan's apology sincere.

Williams, who is black, attended the meeting to both hear about what's happening with the school district and to hear Regan address his Obama comments.

"It's a matter of what you intended when you make a comment," Williams said. "And what he said, it wasn't meant to harm or to offend anybody."

He added, "Initially, I was taken aback by it. It did offend me."

He said it was an "insensitive" comment.

"People who I've spoken to who know this man have said that'sreally not who he is," Williams said. "He did apologize to me, but it's only because he didn't want to feel like he had offended me personally, being a man of color."

Williams said he wanted to hear from Regan in person, because, "That way, I can get a much better feel for how they are. That's why I came down here to have lunch and hear what he had to say."

Williams said he didn't feel it was necessary for Regan to resign from the school board.

Coeur d'Alene School District board member Tom Hamilton, who attended the meeting, as did board member Jim Hightower, said Regan has "owned his words" and learned from this incident.

"We're going to have to sit back and be responsive to the people who have concerns" about Regan's comments, Hamilton said. "We're not going to tuck under a rock and wish it didn't happen. We'll be responsive to the public as we have been."

Comments from the community he has heard so far have been a mix of "being very upset with (Regan) for what he said," and on the opposite side "being very upset at the reaction" by some in the community.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and others condemned his remarks.

Hamilton added, "There's not been a whole lot of middle of the road on that one."

The board hasn't met to discuss the comments, Hamilton said.