Orange County, CA – A Southern California Republican Party official was under fire Saturday after allegations she sent an email that included an altered photo depicting President Barack Obama as an ape.
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An e-mail reportedly sent by party central committee member Marilyn Davenport shows an image, posed like a family portrait, of chimpanzee parents and child, with Obama’s face artificially superimposed on the child. Text beneath the photo reads, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”
Davenport, when reached by The Associated Press, said she would provide a written statement with her response, but several hours later she had not issued one.
The alternative newspaper OC Weekly first reported the story, and was told by Davenport that the e-mail was “just an Internet joke.” She also asked the Weekly, “You’re not going to make a big deal about this are you?”
Republican Party of Orange County Chairman Scott Baugh told The Associated Press on Saturday that he wants an ethics investigation into the incident.
“It’s just highly inappropriate, it’s a despicable message, it drips with racism and I think she should step down from the committee,” said Baugh.
Baugh said it could be several days before it’s known whether the ethics committee will agree to investigate Davenport.
At the very least, Baugh said, Davenport should be apologizing for what she’s done rather than attacking whoever leaked the email to media, referring to an email Davenport sent after the story broke calling on “the coward” who leaked the email to come forward.
Davenport, a tea party activist, represents the 72nd Assembly District in Orange County on the central committee.
She represents Brea, Placentia, Fullerton and portions of other Orange County cities to the county committee tasked with fundraising, campaigning and debating policy for the Republican Party.
It’s only racism if you attack someone with a D next to their name. Otherwise, it’s just “having a good time.”
Double standard.
Reverse racism.
This is disgusting. I do not like Obama as much as the next person, but there is a way to voice displeasure. Obama is still the president of the USA and he deserves the respect that a person in that office deserves.
I did not vote for Obama, and I’m not happy some of his domestic and foreign policies. However, the photo of him appearing as an ape, went too far. It was a despicable cartoon, with biased overtones (depicting Blacks as gorillas or monkeys). Also, I don’t like cartoon caricatures of Jews with hooked long noses, with the Star of David on them. Therefore, we should especially be sensitive to garbage such as this, appearing either on the internet, or in print.
First of all there is a double standard obviously. A democrat can call everyone all names and say whatever they want and They can depict bush as the devil and bin ladin but when a repub does something the nation gets pep talk about political discourse or whatever. Now I’m as conservative as it gets and can’t stand Obama and co. But whoever did this should be thrown out of office. Why give all tea party a bad name with there stupidity. Have respect for the president and don’t lower ureslf to a lowly liberal democrat. That is not the way to make a statement. Ur hurting the tea party and hurting republicans and conseratives. And the liberal media won’t let this one go for years to come. Whatu thinking.
If you want to claim the apikorsis of evolution, this picture makes sense.
# 3 .. I’m not going to say it’s proper to do this to the President but every one of our past Presidents has had cruel cartoons or altered pictures in papers poking fun at them. The issue is can people take shots at Obama without the expected cries of racism. The mocking of a US President, disrectful or not falls within the rules of free expression or am I wrong and have any laws been violated? Yes we do hate it when we see pictures of Jews in a negative way and can understand the outrage blacks must feel when seeing this. Part of the issue here is that this picture came from a Republican Party official who should have exercised better judgement. I am a Republican but would expect this from one of the hate monger organizations and not in an email from the party.
Have you been living under rocks? Bush was constantly portrayed as a monkey… so you apply the double standard? If a politician is white it’s open season, and if he’s “of color” he is sacrosanct? You liberals disgust me.
No need for name-calling! If you feel someone is not abiding by the truth, we can hash it out peacefully and without name-calling!
Stupid, with repercussion not yet obvious and a slap in the face to the United States . How about a few more Harvard graduates with these pictures. Probabl;y the imbecile [male or female] who made this up has an IQ of 80
Whatever the intent was to denigrate the President and with it the Office of the President it is proof that the Republicans instead of presenting cogent political arguments must resort to racist cartoons. It is an intellectual picture of his opponents
The Tea Party has its foundation in the John Birch Society
To #8 -Allan- I 217;ve come to your defense on a number of occasions on this site. However, this time, I have to disagree with you. My point is that although I 217;m no fan of Obama, it has to be remembered that Blacks have endured a long history as being portrayed as monkeys, apes, gorillas, or savages. In fact, when Rodney King was arrested, some of the L.A. cops were referring to him as  220;Gorillas in the Midst 221;. It doesn 217;t make any difference whether the caricature came from a Republican or a Nazi. It was wrong, period. We only have to think back a few decades and remember Der Stuermer, and the garbage that appeared in that publication, by Julius Streicher. Of more recent vintage, in 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon, there were many anti-semitic caricatures of Menachem Begin, including one from the Louisville, Ky newspaper, which showed him with a long, hook, nose, and with a Star of David over that cartoon. An American GI, who had been with the U.S. Army, when it invaded Germany in 1945, stated that after seeing all of those anti-semitic cartoons in 1982, it brought back very bitter memories of what he had witnessed in Germany, in their publications.
#25 I never said it was ok to show blacks as monkeys etc. My first line says is isn’t proper. Presidents have always been the object of ridicule sometimes to the point of outright being offensive. One question I ask is does Obama get special treatment because he is black and where is the line drawn on freedom of the press. I am far from a civil libertarin but what is allowed and what is not? I have no doubt that blacks are offended by this as much as we Jews are offended by the stories you wrote about.
I try my best to be fair to all people as long as they are fair to me and are good citizens. On a personal note…I grew up in a changing part of Brooklyn NY during the 1950’s. The area went from a mixed white population to a heavy black area. With the new neighbors came a level of violence never seen there before. The new blacks attacked the whites and appeared to have a special hatred of Jews. The blacks were very violent to the remaining Jews, living there became hell. In the fall of 1961 we finally moved away.While I don’t condone unprovoked violence against any one group because they are different a lot of what many feel about blacks is based on their violent history.
To #29 - You raise some very good points, pertaining to the ongoing debate as to what should be allowed regarding criticizing our political leaders, and what is inappropriate. I just feel that the office of the President of the United States is somehow maligned, with a reprehensible posting, which shows Obama as an ape. I would feel the same way, if a Caucasian was in the White House; it is just inappropriate. I can’t remember any other caricature of a sitting US President, which depicted him as a monkey, or an ape. Secondly, your comments about your violent Brooklyn neighborhood had absolutely nothing to do with the issue, as to what is appropriate, and what is not appropriate, in political discourse. You somehow implied that because there are Black criminals who prey on Jews and others, that in itself excuses people’s motivations in portraying some Blacks as monkeys and apes. I’ve also seen victims of crimes in inner city neighborhoods, but I would never authorize such an unmentshlikeit cartoon.
And it was OK to portray Bush as a chimpanzee? So just because Obama looks black, showing him as an ape is forbidden because some racist black will take offense?