In case you missed it, the former chairman of the SC Elections Commission and the Richland CountyRepublicanPartyRusty DePass made a racist comment directed at First Lady Michelle Obama. Upon learning that a gorilla had escaped from The River Banks Zoo in Columbia, DePass wrote this comment on his Face book page, “I’m sure it’s one of Michelle’s ancestors-probably harmless.” When word leaked out via the internet,http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/14/rusty-depass-south-caroli_n_215439.html the comment was removed and DePass later admitted to WIS-TV that the remark was referring to Michelle Obama. DePass sounded surprised that anyone took offense to his statement, “I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly made in jest.”

I think DePass was making a joke, along the same lines as Rush Limbaugh’s promotion of the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro.” Racist humor is acceptable in the Republican Party and most especially among Southern Republicans. Lest we forget, the strength of the Republican Party in the South was forged on racism and exclusion of minorities. The late GOP strategist Lee Atwater once said that party officials could no longer openly use the word nigger but they could use code words like “welfare queens” and did so to ensure that Southern whites would flee the Democratic Party. Can we stop pretending that racism isn’t a core tenement of the Southern GOP? DePass was simply being his own racist self. I find it refreshing that now we clearly understand what kind of person DePass is and what we’re dealing with. I do find it quite disturbing but not surprising that DePass was the former chairman of the SC Elections Commission. I can state quite confidently now that DePass is a racist and a hypocrite. DePass penned an op-ed in The State newspaper supporting the impeachment of President Clinton entitled, “Do Republicans Have Higher Moral Standards Than Democrats?” I can emphatically state that no, they most certainly do not. A political party that espouses racism, homophobia, and disrespect for our President and our First Lady is most assuredly not standing on higher moral ground than the Democratic Party.

Is it any wonder that 38% of Republicans and Republican leaning independents surveyed by Gallup recently held unfavorable views of their own party as compared to 7% of Democrats? Among the top categories that come to mind when Americans are asked about the Republican Party are “unfavorable” and “lost their way.”

I must say that although I’m disgusted and dismayed by this most recent racial slur against our African American first lady, I’m delighted to have Rusty DePass drive the Republican Party further into the political wilderness and I hope they stay there a good long time.

Update- June 18, 2009 For another recent example of Republican racism, click on this link to read about a Senator from Tennesse that has retained a clearly racist staff member.

http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/tn-gop-sen-diane-blacks-strongly-word

Update 6-19-09

 ”Sen. John Ensign [R-NV] helped his mistress’s husband get two jobs during the time the rising Republican senator acknowledges carrying on an extramarital affair, an Ensign spokesman said Thursday.” Ensign also gave his mistress, Cindy Hampton, a pay raise in both of the two positions in which she worked for Ensign. Additionally, the NRSC, under Ensign’s leadership, “made twice-monthly payments, generally $500 apiece, to Brandon Hampton,” Hampton’s son.