Comedian Carol Carter

A Florida Republican party board member took calls for her resignation over a flagrantly racist email as an opportunity to demonstrate her profound dull-wittedness. Any doubts about executive committee member Carol Carter’s prejudices were erased in her unapologetic apology.

It started when Carter sent this unfunny email to “less than a dozen” people through her personal account. At least one of them forwarded it on and it ended up with the party’s state chair and the media.

“I’m confused. How can 2,000,000 blacks* get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?”

Well gosh, Carol, I’m confused too. Maybe it’s because black people only want to get off their asses for a party? And they are too lazy to walk out of New Orleans with the clothes on their backs to go god knows where? What’s your explanation, Carol?

Before she resigned, Carter followed up the e-mail with an apology, but added in the message, ”I do hope that we are going to be allowed to keep our sense of humor.” Later in a telephone interview, she said she regretted that the e-mail became public because she realized it “could be taken as very racial.”

”I would never take something like this to the media,” she said. “It’s like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

In one fell swoop Carter blamed whoever leaked her little joke to the media, insulted everyone who saw this as the stunningly hateful and snide remark it was fully intended to be (which evidently includes people in her own inner circle), lashed out at the leaker, and used bad grammar. The word is “racist,” honey, not “racial.” The fact that you don’t know the difference is part of the problem. You’re one of those idiot white people the rest of us blush over.

Speaking of turning red, no doubt that’s what Jim Greer, Florida GOP chair, did when he found out about Carter’s missive. Greer serves on the transition team for Michael Steele, the Republicans’ first black national chair.

* Let’s all buy into the idea that Obama is only the president of black people, shall we?

The bumper sticker, left, and the button

If you’re that one American who wishes Bush could have run for a third term, here’s some good news. You can send the former president a message, via your own bumper or breast, showing your gratitude for his ineptitude — all eight years of it.

For only $1.50 you can slap this “Thank you” sticker on your car. Or for $1.75 you can take that thought with you wherever you go, with a “Thank you” button. The Republican National Committee is selling both, along with commemorative golf balls, low-boy tumblers (fitting, eh?), and t-shirts at the George W. Bush Store.

We’d really love to know how many they’ve sold so far.

RNC Chair Michael Steele

The last time Republicans tried to show they were as broad-minded as Democrats, the country got Sarah Palin. Introduced as the Republican answer to Hillary Clinton, Palin was expected to syphon off the votes of all those disgruntled Hillary-heads and prove Republicans value women more than Democrats do. Instead, it was almost immediately evident they had selected one of the most anti-choice, anti-feminist, anti-“vagina-Americans”* ever to crawl out from under an oil pipeline.

So what have they done this time? Trotted out former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, an African American, to lead their party. And as Wattree at epluribusmedia notes, it’s the same old Republican stuff.

What I would personally like to see is a Republican Party that INCLUDES minorities, not use them…[A]nyone with an ounce of sense can see that this is a gimmick. Republicans were defeated so badly in the last election, and Obama is so popular, that they figure Black must be the political flavor of the season, so they went out and “got them one”–it didn’t matter who, just long as his skin was dark…

The American people didn’t elect President Obama because he’s Black, they elected him because he demonstrated that he was an intelligent, competent, statesman. He was also elected so overwhelmingly because for the past eight years the Republican Party has clearly demonstrated that it was overflowing with corruption, incompetence, and greed. So while it’s hard for the RNC to believe, for the very first time, we had an election that was based strictly on the issues and relative competence, and not race.

Their election, on the other hand, was all about race. One contender, former Tennessee GOP Chair Chip Saltsman, made it crystal clear with his Christmas gift. The audio CD contained the now-famous “Barack the Magic Negro” as well as “Ivory and Ebony” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.” It was satire, we were told, not racism. What better way to prove it than to select a black man to lead them? That Steele, unlike their other candidates, has no party-building experience is secondary.

I don’t yet know Steele’s opinions or views but this move seems almost as good as choosing a female misogynist to run as vice president. And we all know how that worked out.

* In the words of The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee

We recently gave you an overview of the problems of Rep. Ray Sansom (R-Destin), who steered millions in taxpayer dollars to Northwest Florida State College, where he was rewarded with a $110,000 a year job.

A little while ago, Sansom resigned as speaker.

“Effective immediately, I have decided to recuse myself from the exercise of my duties as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Sansom said in a statement. “Ongoing legal proceedings have temporarily created an inability for me to carry out my responsibilities as Speaker … The allegations and reports associated with these proceedings have caused my family grave pain and this has prompted my decision. I expect positive outcomes and am confident that when the facts are known, my honesty and integrity will be confirmed.”

Parallels with former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagoviech, also believed to have used his position for personal gain, abounded from the get-go. Sansom today sounds a whole lot like Blago yesterday.

Sansom and his fellow Republicans in the House bemoan the “distraction” of the grand jury investigation into Sansom’s antics, but none of them is speaking the truth about the real problem: raiding the public till (to the tune of $25 million for his new employer) and living large on the proceeds.

Florida Rep. Ray Sansom, center, has ‘splainin’ to do

I haven’t wanted to bore you non-Floridians out there with the details of our House speaker’s misuse of power and conflicts of interest, but his case just got way less boring. Unless you consider being investigated by a grand jury and your fellow legislators dull.

A grand jury decided Monday to look into allegations that House Speaker Ray Sansom abused his position by taking a six-figure job at his hometown college.

“From this point on, we’ll be calling witnesses,” State Attorney Willie Meggs said at the Leon County Courthouse.

The trouble for State Rep. Sansom (R-Destin) began on what should have been a Very Good Day. After all, how often do you get sworn in as speaker of the House and find out you’ve been selected for a $110,000 a year job? Not only that, but the job is a newly created position pretty much tailor-made for you, at the community college you once attended, and to which you just steered $25 million in state funds, even though only $1 million was in the original appropriation. But wait, it gets better.

Although college officials dispute it, public records show that the airport facility Northwest Florida State College plans to build with tax money secured by House Speaker Ray Sansom is the same hangar Sansom’s friend wanted for his jet business…

Indeed, the hangar that [Developer Jay] Odom had proposed using $6-million in state money to build is virtually the same as what Northwest Florida State plans to build with $6-million Sansom obtained during the 2007 legislative session.

There’s one other little problem (that we know of so far).

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