
The 'racist hate-email' depicting obama as a chimpanzee
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THE IMAGE: A Republican Party official and Tea Party activist in southern California faced scathing criticism this weekend for distributing a doctored photo showing President Obama's
face superimposed onto a chimpanzee. (See the chimp's family portrait below.) The "racist hate-email" accompanying the photo reads "Now you know why — No birth
certificate!" County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh said the email was "in very poor taste" and called for the resignation of the official behind it — Marilyn Davenport, an elected
member of the Orange County Republican central committee, who called the controversy "much ado about nothing." "I'm sorry if my email offended anyone," she's
conceded in a written statement. "I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth." THE REACTION: This ugly email
is so "heinous," says Frances Martel at _Mediaite_, that Davenport needs to step down, now. It's time for _all_ Republicans, everywhere, to stop attacking the nation's
first black president with "unacceptable racism disguised as 'jokes.'" The Left's reaction is overblown, says _Left Coast Rebel_. Mainstream GOPers _have_ denounced
Davenport, but liberals are using a ridiculous email from one "idiot" to discredit the entire Right — exploiting their trusty "race card" to deflect attention from the
horrible job Obama is doing. That might hold water if this were an isolated incident, says David Neiwart at _Crooks and Liars_, but "little stories like this one" keep bubbling up
to the surface" of the "fetid little Tea Party cesspool." Take a look at the photo: SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus
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