Ohio GOP Central Committee Member Takes Nod From Cunningham; Smears Obama w/ Middle Name
Submitted by Jerid on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 1:23pm.
Hold the presses! Just when you thought the Republican Party was starting to get some sense about what is tasteful political dialogue and what is not, a member of the Ohio Republican Party decided to start the personal smears again. Praying on ethnic prejudice and hate, John Becker, GOP State & Executive Committeeman from the 14th District, proudly called Barack Obama by his middle name (and further went on to attack him) in his popular internet email and webnewsletter "The Becker Report."
While Becker might be able to claim he was just calling Obama by name with no ill will, roughly 40 other individuals were named without the use of a middle name in Becker's March 8th newsletter where the smear occurs. Obama was the only individual the Republican state committeeman saw fit with which to invoke a middle name. Perhaps Becker thought these sort of hateful tactics were appropriate since southwest Ohio radio icon and Republican activist Bill Cunningham recently resorted to similar actions. However, in that case Republican leadership quickly distanced themselves from Cunningham and made it explicitly clear they did not approve of such tactics.
Similarly, the Tennessee Republican party also recently resorted to using Obama's name in an inflamatory effort to stoke hate towards Muslims for their own political gain. However, in that case - like the Cunningham case - Republican leadership stepped in to scold the local party.
The Republican National Committee this afternoon scolded the Tennessee Republican Party over their use of "Barack Hussein Obama" in an official press release and warned the state party that they will be denounced by the national committee if they use the Democrat's middle name again, said a GOP official close to the RNC.
John Becker is a member of the very core committee that makes Ohio Republican endorsements, greenlights party action, and runs the Ohio Republican Party. In fact, Becker is elected to his position by other Southwest Ohio Republicans every two years to represent their voice in the Ohio Republican Party. The Ohio Republican Party has a duty to quash this type of prejudice in its party, especially when it comes from its elected leaders. I have contacted John McClelland, Ohio Republican Party communications director for comment on Becker's statement, and to learn how the party intends to uproot this type of hate from its party apparatus.
It's Actually A Good Newsletter
Submitted by Jerid on Thu, 03/13/2008 - 3:31pm.
I've been reading it for over a year. Aside from his bloviating about national politics, the guy uses it to keep his constituents up to date with whats going on with the Ohio GOP. It's one of my best sources with what's going on with their party in general. And he claims to have a couple hundred subscribers in southwest Ohio.
I think the point here is that this is someone who's a member of the GOP leadership, using their communication with constituents to propagate a smear. That's pretty serious to me.
What value does this newsletter have?
I'm mean, the entire content is the Clintons are evil and Obama is really liberal. Like he's the first Republican enlightened with such thoughts... Does he honestly think there are Republicans who open their mailbox and read this tripe and go, "You know what, he's right! I do think the Clintons are evil and Obama is a liberal."
What a waste of bandwidth and paper.