The Virginian-Pilot
©
A second e-mail linking a second Republican activist to racist comments was publicized Tuesday by a Virginia Democratic Party official, who suggested that GOP congressional candidate Scott Rigell indirectly condones such behavior.
A local Republican leader said the e-mail is a last-minute smear that has nothing to do with Rigell or his campaign.
"This kind of despicable last-hour innuendo is why people really don't like politics," said Gary Byler, GOP chairman in the 2nd Congressional District.
The e-mail, dated July 31, is attributed to Karen Beauchamp, a former Virginia Beach GOP chairwoman. It provided a link to a video that attacked President Barack Obama and used slurs against blacks and Hispanics.
Beauchamp's e-mail said of the video: "The language is a bit strong, but the sentiment is right! We will take America back."
A copy of the e-mail was posted Tuesday afternoon on Blue Virginia, a Democratic blog, and the blog was publicized in an e-mail sent to the news media and others by David Mills, the Virginia Democratic Party's executive director.
Rigell's campaign, which removed Beauchamp's name Tuesday from a website list of more than 75 Republicans who endorsed the candidate, denounced her e-mail and disavowed any relationship with Beauchamp.
"Let me be clear, racism has no place in our society and runs completely counter to Scott Rigell's values," wrote campaign manager Jason Miyares. "It should be noted that Karen Beauchamp is not in a position of leadership or an advisor to the Rigell campaign."
Beauchamp, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, was Virginia Beach Republican chairwoman from 1999 to 2002 and has been a frequent contributor to Republican candidates.
On Monday, the most recent Beach GOP chairman, David Bartholomew, resigned hours after a racist joke sent from his e-mail address was made public.
Rigell and his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 2 election, U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, both called for Bartholomew to step down and denounced the March 15 e-mail.
Mills said Tuesday he first learned of the Bartholomew and Beauchamp e-mails this week. He was critical of Rigell in a Tuesday news release, writing: "How many more racist e-mails have to surface before Scott Rigell will clean house and disavow this sort of backwards thinking?"
He told The Virginian-Pilot that "on some level, we felt like we had to say something because the stuff is pretty terrible.... At a bare minimum, people need to know about this."
Neither Mills nor Lowell Feld, founder of Blue Virginia, would say who provided the e-mails.
Pilot writer Julian Walker contributed to this report.
Bill Bartel, (757) 446-2398, bill.bartel@pilotonline.com
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Democrats
can do nothing except what they usually do when desperate.......play the race card big time.
The term race card is an
The term race card is an invention of wingnuts and is used only and solely to excuse racism or deflect criticism from racists. Only on the right is sending a racist email a political win. Good going, flyby! stay true to your school!
Dogs and people
I like most people, but "let me be clear", the more people I meet these days, the more I love my dogs.
Step up and be better than him not race
Lets just take race out of it. It doesnt matter who you are and who this email is referring to that it is wrong to say this about anyone. No one should be referred to as a dog. We are all human beings. Maybe when we start recognizing that than we can see through all of the stereotypes. The same dog in which this email speaks about; if true, speaks volumes when it comes down to how well we would treat a animal compared to our own neighbor. We are all neighbors. We all bleed through similiar veins, and no one has any right to compare a human being to a dog, or a dog to a human being. I dont care about your race. Everyone deserves respect and dignity. It is these types of emails that seperate who care about the people and who are only caring about themselves. I do not care what your race is, but I hope you learn from this email to be better and not worse. All this over the color of our skin. Their are people color blind to this day that are happy to be color blind because of these antics. They wish to have the opportunity to see something just so basic as color; no matter your background.
Something just isn't right.
I had the pleasure of hearing Condoleeza Rice speak at the Norfolk Forum last week and I agreed with her stance of free enterprise, strengthening the nation's borders and fiscal responsibility. She discussed how she, until the age of ten, had to live under Jim Crow laws. So within forty years, she moves from being unable to buy a hamburger at Jack's Restaurant to the position of U.S. National Security Advisor and U.S. Secretary of State. That is quite remarkable...especially when you consider she is a staunch Republican. I find it difficult to accept that someone of her caliber would associate herself with a party that encourages and promotes racism, as some in these posts have claimed. It just doesn't add up. She claims to not have any further political aspirations...a pity.
Classic Democratic Move
Do you want to elect a representative who condones nasty, dirty political maneuvers aimed at deceitfully smearing his opponent, or a candidate of integrity, character, and proven leadership ability? If you like how the democrats have pulled at straws in the final days of the election and unearthed widely circulated chain emails, completely unrelated to Rigell, in an attempt to somehow discredit him, then Nye is your man!!!! If you think that it is reprehensible that a campaign would resort to pulling an extremely tangentially related race card in the final days of the campaign, then you have your head screwed on right.
give the republicans enough rope, they'll hang themselves
See their comments below. I don't support Rigell, but the man deserves better than what theses "supporters" have produced. At some point successful or not, Rigell will have to distance himself from these kind of folks to preserve any sort of integrity.
Birds of a feather
If Rigell can link Nye to Pelosi then why can't Nye link this GOP racist to Rigell?
Nye isn't a friend of Pelosi or Obama. He votes in the middle of the road. Rigell will be another Thelma if the GOP wins in 2012 or 2016.
It gets muddier
Our political campaigns continue to get muddier. The timing of the revealing of these e-mails is another part of smear efforts that dominate politics these days. Forget about the issues, where the different candidates stand on them, their voting records or other important ways of judging them: just dig up and toss the mud around.
American political campaigns have turned into disgusting cesspools that are inflicted on the American people.
as the saying goes
"You ain't seen nothin yet". Just wait until the 2012 Presidential campaigns, the libs will pull out all the stops.