USA Today: The local Illinois Republican Party official who called a biracial congressional candidate a “street walker” resigned Thursday, after his comments were widely denounced as offensive.Apparently, there are some things you can say that are just too crazy for even the Republican Party to bear. Cross that line and they’ll pressure you out. Ask New Hampshire state Representative Stella Tremblay, who was likewise pushed out after insisting that the Boston Marathon Bombings were a “false flag” operation staged by the government to create an excuse to take away civil liberties.
Jim Allen referred to Erika Harold, a lawyer and former Miss America, as a “street walker” and “love child” in an e-mail with racial overtones to the conservative website, Republican News Watch.
[…]
Allen’s resignation came shortly after Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and other GOP officials called on him to step down. The national party has been undergoing a rebranding effort aimed at improving its standing with minorities, who voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in last year’s election.
But this line that shall not be crossed is not a bright red one, by rather a charcoal gray one on a black background. It’s really not the most obvious thing in the world, While it may seem that flabbergastingly offensive statements and insane conspiracy theories will get you the boot, this is clearly not the case.
An example — and it’s just one example, mind you — is Representative Louie Gohmert, a man unashamed by his own obvious inteelectual shortcomings. People may remember him for his insane “terror babies” theory, but Louie is prolific when it comes to batshit craziness. After all, the Texas Republican has accused the president of conspiring with terrorists to create a “new Ottoman empire” and, more recently, told a woman that she should’ve carried her braindead fetus to term. So, a stupid conspiracy theory on the par with Tremblay’s? Check. An incredibly thoughtless and offensive comment that stands right up there with Jim Allen’s? Check.
You can almost excuse these people for looking at Louie Gohmert — and Steve King, Michele Bachmann, Tom Coburn, Rand Paul, et. al. — and deciding that whatever crazyassed thing they want to say is cool. The party punishes people for offensive and/or insane comments so capriciously that whatever it is you’re thinking about saying, someone’s probably already gotten away with saying something similar. Until the party gets around to punishing congressional loudmouths, liars, and jerks, the state-level nutjobs will just keep following suit.
Tremblay and Allen deserved to be pushed out. But they shouldn’t be going alone. Not when congressional Republicans say things just as bad on a regular basis.
[photo by HeatherHeatherHeather]
