Deirdre Fernandes
The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
A guideline for political types: Don't e-mail anything that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper.
That's the advice from Virginia Beach City Councilman Jim Wood.
"E-mail is a decent tool, but you have to be careful," Wood said.
David Bartholomew learned that lesson earlier this week when he resigned as chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party after an e-mail sent from his address with a racist joke surfaced.
Bartholomew did not return calls for comment. It is still unclear who leaked the e-mail to bloggers and the media this week.
But Gary C. Byler, GOP chairman in the 2nd Congressional District, has said that Bartholomew didn't read the contents of the e-mail before forwarding it to a handful of people.
The e-mail describes a man trying to get welfare benefits for his dog. "My Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is," the e-mail states.
Party officials need to be more careful about what they put in their e-mails and send to others, Byler said. "We've learned our lesson now," he said. "It's a cautionary tale for the times on the use of Internet communications."
Some Beach officials said this is a lesson politicians should have learned years ago.
The e-mail seemed like a relic from an earlier Internet age, said Beach Commissioner of the Revenue Phil Kellam, a Democrat.
"Everybody was so enamored they could send pictures or jokes around, and some people's jokes aren't acceptable, to say the least," he said. "In the last 10 years or so, most people have figured out not to participate in inappropriate activity."
Kellam said he occasionally gets e-mails that he doesn't find amusing.
"You e-mail back and say, 'Hey, I don't need to be on this distribution list and I'd appreciate it if you remove me.' "
The telling of crude or racist jokes isn't new, but the medium is, said Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University.
"When you told a story to your friend down the street on the phone, it died when you hung up. But on the Internet, nothing dies," he said.
"When you're going to play in the political world, everything you say and type is going to be out there," he said. "You don't pay attention to that at your own peril."
Kidd doubted Bartholomew's explanation, articulated by Byler, that Bartholomew was learning how to use the Internet when he forwarded the e-mail.
"C'mon, I don't know whether that's true or not, but he's not 90," Kidd said. "He didn't just get e-mail."
Byler and other Republicans have argued that the e-mail, which was sent on March 15, was released just two weeks before the election to damage Republican Scott Rigell's chances of unseating U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye, a Democrat, in the 2nd District.
Kidd said the e-mail could affect the race if it increases the number of black voters. "This race is really close, and the effect that this could have is to energize African American voters, even if it's just a little bit."
Deirdre Fernandes, (757) 222-5121, deirdre.fernandes@pilotonline.com
Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
He who never told an off color(can I say that) joke, cast
the first stone. PC? BS! If I were a betting man I would bet all I have that 99.9% of all adult people at one time or another told, heard, read, and laughed at a ethnic, religious, sexual, stereotypical, etc. etc joke that now a days is usually called racist. When I grew up through the 50-60-70"s in NY I think I heard every Polish, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Black, PuertoRican, etc. joke ever written. And being a mix of a few laughed at the majority of them. People today are so thin skinned and hypocritical that they laugh when they see fit and sue when the are insulted because the wrong person repeated it. Lighten up, and stop taking everything so personally. Most of you will pay to hear a commedian tell the same jokes. Oh but thats OK? Right!
timing not a factor
I received an email last week, which I replied that I did not care for the content. I did look at the trail of senders addresses, and if I thought a name was in there that would affect someone running for political office, I would have contacted the news-last week 3 weeks before an election. Racism and politics should not be allowed to coexist and it doesn't matter what party is involved.
People cry racism today like the little boy that cried WOLF
The end result will be the same. No one will believe you. True racism should NEVER be tolerated. A joke is a joke. Maybe it's when a joke hits close to home that some take it so personal? What ever happened to "Sticks and stones will break my bones but WORDS will never hurt me?" We are getting awfully soft America in many many ways. This ain't good.
You sound like you're trying
You sound like you're trying to apologize for "true racism" i.e. the distribution of this joke.
Hocus Pocus
Since Mr. Bartholomew did not know how to delete the email sent he could have contacted Christine O'Donnell and asked her to do some of her hocus pocus witchcraftery to make it disappear.
Just wondering
Hmmm.. just wondering if the dog had to payback the money?
2 thumbs down so far Rick.
That tells me that there are 2 with no sense of humor. If I was the dog I would wait until they served me with papers. Then guess what the dog should do with them?
Maybe when the poodles on wall street
pay it back.
This is the way some think
This is the way some think and these are the kind of things some say behind closed doors. Unfortunately, this one got out in an email and cost this person his position. Most people would not claim to be racist but are more racist than they think, and it will eventually come out by what you say or do in regards to people who are different from you. It is hard to believe this man forwarded an email without knowing what it said. No one knows who he directed his comments to but everyone knows it was towards blacks on welfare. By the way, blacks aren't the only ones on welfare. Do your research and stop stereotyping.
I don't know the gentleman in question.
He seems to have many peers that would attest to his integrity. Integrity dictated his resignation as the appropriate response. I will give the man the benefit of the doubt as he condemned the joke and no concrete proof has been provided that his forwarding of it was other than physical error.
However, what is it about the Republican Party's contemporary rhetoric that seems to appeal to such racists as the joke provider? I would advise some introspection before you lose all supporters that have any integrity what so ever.