Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Virginia Beach GOP Racism Debacle Continues as Chair Resigns and Rigell Endorser Recommends Racist Video

UPDATED: Thursday's Virginian Pilot has more coverage on the racism eruption in the Virginia Beach GOP. The problem is simple. The GOP - be it in Tea Party mode or its Christianist allies - is all about denigrating others and the politics of division, particularly over racial and religious issues. The article puts the question this way:
*
"How many more racist e-mails have to surface before Scott Rigell will clean house and disavow this sort of backwards thinking?"
*
The answer, of course, is that Rigell will not do so because he's cut out of the typical GOP homophobic, theocratic, and racists stock.
*
I wrote yesterday about the idiocy - and racism of Virginia Beach Republican Party City Committee Chair David Bartholomew (pictured with Christianist GOP candidate Scott Rigell) who circulated a joke equating African-Americas as follows: "black, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is." Not only is Bartholomew an idiot for circulating such trash on his e-mail account used for Party business, but he is also apparently a very bad liar. The Virginian Pilot has highlights on Bartholomew's resignation as GOP chair. Here are highlights, including his totally lame excuse:
*
David Bartholomew is not a racist and agreed to resign because the e-mail had become a distraction to the Nov. 2 election, said Gary Byler, the 2nd Congressional District GOP chairman, after meeting with Bartholomew.
*
The e-mail was dated March 15 and sent from the address that Bartholomew uses as party chairman. Bartholomew forwarded it without reading the contents when "he was first getting familiar with the Internet," Byler said.
*
He was just "getting familiar with the Internet" in March, 2010? Please give me a break! The fairy tales may work with the creationist elements of the GOP, but do they really think this excuse is even remotely credible for thinking individuals? Making matters worse, Blue Virginia has released an e-mail from a former GOP chair and Scott Rigell endorser that circulates a racist video entitled "Barack the Angry Negro." Frankly, I am shocked that Ms. Beauchamp sent the e-mail in question. The irony is that she was deposed as Party chair herself because she was "too moderate." She fell in a coup backed and engineered by former Virginia State Senator Ken Stolle - the same Ken Stolle who was part of the legislative lynch mob that refused to reappoint Verbena Askew in 2003 because Askew was - gasp, rumored to be a lesbian, as well as black.
*
Obviously, these racism eruptions are not a good thing for Pat Robertson tool, Scott Rigell, this close to election day. Rigell had the sense to jump into damage control mode and condemned Bartholomew's racism - even though I suspect he's actually in complete agreement with both the "My Dog" joke and the "Barack the Angry Negro" video. He certainly is a first class gay-hater as his involvement with the parish split at Galilee Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach readily documents.

No comments: