A Chip By Any Other Name . . .

What kind of a chip is a Chip Saltsman? A cow chip? Perhaps a sheep chip? You get my drift.

In any event, as a progressive Democrat, I'm rooting for Horse Chip Saltsman, who used to be Mike Huckabee's campaign manager, to be the next head of the Republican National Committee.

In case anyone missed it, Mule Chip Saltsman is the sensitive soul who sent RNC members a musical CD featuring, among other offensive classics, a tasteless little ditty called "Barack, the Magic Negro," which was first performed on Rush Limbaugh's radio show in April of 2007.

You've got to hand it to both Limbaugh and Goat Chip Saltsman. The song sure has catchy lyrics, like:

"some say barack's articulate and bright and new and clean the media sure love this guy a white interloper's dream"

Other numbers on this Yuletide CD, sung by right wing satirist Paul Shanklin, include "Love Client #9," "John Edwards' Poverty Tour," and, just to make absolutely clear that he is an equal opportunity offender, "The Star Spanglish Banner" ("Jose can you see ... cross the border we sailed as the gringos were sleeping").

According to Burro Chip Saltsman, "I think most people recognize political satire when they see it." Actually, and more importantly, most people recognize insensitive bigotry when they see and hear it.

The mere fact that Buffalo Chip Saltsman is a credible candidate for the RNC chairmanship speaks volumes. With him at the helm, the Republican Party will certainly get Ann Coulter's vote. And Sean Hannity's. And Diane Fedele's.

Diane Fedele? For those who haven't memorized all the Republican tasteless gems of the 2008 presidential campaign, she's the wit who produced the "Ten Dollar Obama Bucks" food stamp showing the then Democratic candidate's head superimposed on a donkey's body surrounded by a chunk of watermelon, ribs, a pitcher of Kool-Aid, and a bucket of fried chicken.

Bison Chip Saltsman is also likely to get Marcia Stirman's support. She's the chairwoman of the Otero County Republican Women in New Mexico who wrote in the Alamogordo Daily News that "I believe Muslims are our enemies," and that "Obama isn't a messiah or a Democrat. He's a Muslim socialist."

Another kindred spirit is Jeffrey M. Frederick, the Chairman of the Virginia Republican Party who likened Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden in a pep talk to campaign volunteers, explaining that "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon. That is scary."

To their credit, some Republicans have reacted with appropriate disgust. "This is so inappropriate that it should disqualify any Republican National Committee candidate who would use it," observed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. And Robert M. "Mike" Duncan, the current RNC chairman who is running for reelection, said that "I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate." But so far we haven't heard from George W. Bush, or Dick Cheney, or John McCain, or Mitt Romney, or Rudy Giuliani, or Tim Pawlenty, or Mike Huckabee, or, for that matter, Sarah Palin.

As a partisan, I'd like nothing better than to see someone like Jackass Chip Saltsman, who gets his inspiration from Rush Limbaugh, head the GOP. But as an American, I recognize that such combination of bigotry, stupidity and insensitivity is not at all good for either our country or its body politic.

In a recent interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Colin Powell counseled his fellow Republicans against continuing "to use polarization for political advantage," and pointedly asked, "Can we continue to listen to Rush Limbaugh? Is this really the kind of party that we want to be when these kinds of spokespersons seem to appeal to our lesser instincts rather than our better instincts?"

All those Republicans who have not yet spoken out about Generic Farm Animal Chip Saltsman would be well advised to give General Powell's words some serious consideration.

Menachem Rosensaft is a lawyer in New York City

Comments

[serindipity803]

This current group who call themselves Republicans are nothing better than throwbacks from the civil war-still pissed off at Sheridans march through the south. They still think the "south will rise again". Enough already! What ever happened to the William Buckley Intellectuals aka: Republicans????? I for one must have leadership politically that is living in the 21st century. It is evident this current group of so called republicans hasn't come any further since 1860.

[stardot]

Make no mistake, the republican myth is alive and recruiting. 2008 was an example of the hand getting caught in the cookie jar, and the R's fielded McBush as a candidate who might have won in a different year, but with Bush 2.0 pushing such a huge cart of baggage, hardly any R candidate had a great shot at winning.

Every day they will keep on telling their kids, recruits, etc., that the problems of the world are REALLY the fault of the dems, and that somehow Obama was behind everything bad that's ever happened in the entire world since Clinton turned over the White House to Obama. See? Clinton passed power to Obama. And Hillary is still secretly running things for Bill.

Some of the R's think the RNC should just go ahead and sign over everything to Limbaugh and be done with it.

[LDS50]

You forgot to mention - it all started with Carter.

[1differentdrummer]

His wing of the R party shows a lot of class.

[Bounceem]

I'd hate for you to forget those HILARIOUS "Obama Waffles," with Obama taking the place of Aunt Jemima, and a message on the label that read "Turn box toward Mecca for tastier waffles." Remember how Rush talked them up, that they were sold at the RNC convention, and that Lou Dobbs just HAD to pick up a box to take home to his wife. (I hope Lou has the box sitting atop his desk on-air when he first tries to conduct an interview with then-President Obama. Ya know, just so they an share the laughs together.)

Hey, it's been the same for decades. The problem isn't racism, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and/or blind hatred revealed in tasteless, cruel and crude jokes. The problem is how many people apparently lack a sense of humor. Course, make a joke about an evangelical minister, and suddenly the Right can agree that "hate speech" DOES exist.

[joeyfoto]

This guy is a perfect fit to head the RNC.
Go GOP... GO! GO! GO!
Palin / Bachmann 2012.
"The base" is fired-up now.
Get Chip Saltsman on the job, then hire Alan Keyes.
The future of the Republican Party is in their hands.
"The South will rise again!"

[pdxsteve]

Honestly, I hope Chip wins the head of the RNC. That will be the catalyst for the implosion of the GOP. He can claim "satire" all he wants; the song is quite clearly racist. So let Saltsman win. He and his buddies can have their laughs, and make their snide comments about how stupid liberals are. And then one day, he will be faced with the fact that his party is in shambles, his career will have come to a dead end, and that no intelligent individual will respect him ever again. So I say lets embrace Saltsman. He will do more damage to the GOP than anyone else could ever hope to inflict.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

I would think that Elephant Chip would be a more appropriate name.

When Newt Gengrich says a persons actions are 'inappropriate', you have gone far beyond the pale.

[SiberianRat]

I was thinking the same thing about the elephant, and I love the comment about Newt--yeah, crossing his moral limit is pretty freakin far! I love that this has come out--I hope he (Chip) wins.

[SethBLiNK]

Though I see your point in rooting for him, I'm not. And not because of any form of outrage.

I want the Republican Party to wake up. Our two party system works when voters have two viable alternatives. Instead, they have one party that is on our side ideologically, but gets low marks for performance (with the exception of the brilliant work so far of our President Elect). The rest of them... Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd... they aren't wowing me.

And on the other side, we have a circus. They were dangerous in power. Now that they are on the sidelines, they are a joke. There are a few serious Republicans who need to take the party back from the ignoramuses like Saltsman and need to keep the new Democratic power structure on their toes if this government is going to work.

If there is one thing the economic crises has taught us it is that the political infighting doesn't really help any of us. Not when the whole crew is asleep at the wheel.

[michiganvoter]

Quite right.

[Jesster]

I agree (despite all of Boy Genius Rove's best efforts) a one party system is a terrible idea. I'm just not sure if the GOP in it's current state is worthy of being the second party. Frankly, even many of the high ranking Dems are certainly of dubious value...

But for the GOP / RNC to even consider the likes of Chip Saltsman or Ken Blackwelll to head up the party is utterly mindboggling. And infantile "toilet" type humor is anything but amusing, and doesn't even come close to qualifying as "satire."

[SiberianRat]

"Our two party system works when voters have two viable alternatives." -- Very true. However, I think that's why we need to break free from the strangle-hold the 2 parties have on US politics at the Federal Level and open the field a bit more.

[Eclectic Radical]

I am not going to dwell on the forces of history or the difficult but, theoretically, possible labor of completely reforming the federal election system. Instead I am going to talk about the real forces that makes the idea of a multi-party system a complete pipe dream: the American media. In our modern age of tv news, news is another form of entertainment that exists to sell ad-space. So the media, which controls the majority of the debates, shows the election they believe will be the most entertaining and that ends up being the only option by sheer weight of collective opinion.

This doesn't just effect third parties either. How many self-labeled liberals and progressives voted for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, the two most conservative candidates for the Democratic nomination because they believed those were the only two 'real' choices, the only 'electable' choices? How many self-labeled liberals and progressives voted for one of these candidates solely based on their gender or race?

The real stranglehold on politics is the media's, and the real villain the is average American voter who forms his opinions based on that media. The only political solution is a massive regulation of the news-media that will certainly face Constitutional obstacles.

[ArmyCentrist]

So much for ever winning another national election ever again, Chip...all those people you just insulted, especially Latinos, yeah, they're gonna start out-numbering you soon...good luck with that!

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012!

[dutch163]

offensive, yes

should we not protest it? we should

evil flourishes when good people say nothing..it is not funny

but I also believe in karma and all their bad stuff will come back to bite them in the end

(BTW my cat is named Chip)

[judiNJ]

Anyone have this creep's email address? Let's drown him with our "respectful disgust"...

[66rock]

I did. Go to his site and the contact link. I sent him an email to tell him to just go away and also went to Gov Huckabees site and told him to step up now.

[Trittydi]

They're playing to their hard-core base - and THAT is completely racist. I guess they feel they need to keep these constituents happy.
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[Trittydi]

He's a buffalo chip.

There is no way this can be casually dismissed as "political" satire. The design was to denigrate and diminish those targeted. Everything about re-Thug "humor" is mean - it's all they understand. The fact that THEY think it is actually funny is tremendously revealing.

They now stand naked before all America -- and it's vulgar and ugly.

[mdlark1966]

OK, I realize I'm not going to be popular for saying this - I consider myself a progressive Democrat and an unabashed liberal - but I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill here. Don't get me wrong - this song is divisive, mean-spirited, and about as clever as "Jingle bells, Batman smells...." Which is about what you'd expect of a song that Rush Limbaugh likes. But it seems to me that it's less a racist attack on Obama than it is an attack on us white liberals. Maybe I'm wrong, but considering that, so far, it's white liberals like Mr. Rosensaft who are taking the most offense, perhaps it's not so far off the mark. Again, I'm not defending Saltsman, Shanklin, Limbaugh, or any of the rest of their ilk; the sooner they crawl back into the wormholes they came from, the better. But I think we need to be careful about making charges of racism, or we'll end up like the little boy who cried wolf. (I have to also add that Mr. Rosensaft's repeated "jokes" on Mr. Saltsman's name are about as clever and funny as the song. They don't do us any favors. I'm tired of being insulted and bullied by the Repugnicans, and I think we should be fighting back every chance we get. But do we have to stoop to their level to do it?)

[Trittydi]

I think it's important to remember that the video was deliberately insulting to other groups as well. It seems a clear effort to insult and offend all those targeted. As such - viewing the collective effort and the trouble they went to, to record, produce and distribute an entire CD of this crap - is what people should be focused on.

I have trouble being dismissive of the collective effort and intent.
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[returnofthejedi]

I can understand what you say, but I dont agree that only wh ite liberals find these comments offensive. As an African American I find them repulsive. I f you have not noticed, there has been a strange tactic that has been succesful for bigots in this country and it goes lke this: When your a person of color and you respond to things like this with a loud voice, you are more demonized than the Bigot that has offended you. That tactic has been succesful for probably the last 20 years. You answer these idiots in a loud voice, your a race baiter, or your using your race as an excuse, things like this should prove those notions false and should also prove how big a problem racism and bigotry are in this society. Some people have no clue as to how much of these types of things go on.

[michiganvoter]

Your suggestion that we stop reacting with open and vocal disgust just because there is so much of this kind of distasteful garbage hardly makes sense.

Consistently calling these people on their unacceptable behavior is not crying wolf, it is demanding decency and civil discourse. We can only expect to see an elevation in social behavior if we raise our standards and don't fear being seen as picky for pointing out the truth.

[swancj]

As a person of color, let me correct your impression that we are not offended and intended to be offended by the song. I suggest that you, really most people I know, should take some time to learn the real roots of racism, white privilege, and the painful realities of racism in our country in this moment. I have been a little sad that President-elect Obama's commentary on racism and a dialogue [made during the primary] that we might be poised to enter have been largely put aside. One reason some educated and intelligent white people feel hesitant about calling another person racist is because they have a sneaking suspicion that they also have racist thoughts and they probably feel some guilt over the white privilege that brings them advantages to this very day. Perhaps this is the time for people to spend some time watching the PBS specials on race and white privilege. [Race; the Power of an Illusion] - so that they can be more clear in understanding that decrying racist speech is not the limited purview of minorities or bias-free people [do they even exist?].

[Fez]

The Republican party is Frankenstein's monster. What started out as an interesting experiment (maybe we can get some traction if we let angry racist bigots run our party) has gone horribly wrong. Now the monster is hiding in a cave, having murderd, raped, pillaged, and tortured his way across the country. The citizens are up in arms, the torches and pitchforks are raised, and the monster is trapped with his back against the wall. The world will be a better place the day the Republican party dies.