Modern Republican Values: Racism, Pornography, Anti-Semitism, Beastiality...

The New York Republican Party has officially nominated one of the most disgusting teabagger candidates for Governor. Carl "Palomino" Paladino, the darling of the teabaggers, makes former Republican Congressman Vito "Two Family Values" Fossella look moral by comparison.

Back in April, Republican Paladino was caught gleefully forwarding emails that included racist pictures, called blacks "niggers," and had bestiality videos.

The new "morality" of the teabagger Republican Party in NY State is racism, pornography and bestiality. This is what Republicans nominated in NY State last night.

Remember when Republicans wanted to impeach President Clinton because he had consensual sex with a woman other than his wife? They portrayed themselves as champions of morality. Well, that facade is long shot away by people like Newt Gingrich (abandoning his wife for a younger woman while his wife was ill with cancer), Congressman Don Sherwood (abusing and attempting to choke the woman he was having an extra-marital affair with), Congressman Mark Foley (soliciting sex with a 16-year old man), well...need I continue? For the strong of stomach, here is a list of Republican sex scandals, almost all of which make Bill Clinton's consensual affair look very tame by comparison.

Well, here in NY State Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino was in the habit of emailing racist emails and videos as well as videos of bestiality and pornography. (as well as an email I saw this morning), Paladino has sent emails that include:

# A popular video among white supremacists called "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal," that includes dancing African tribesmen. [Racist and Birther BS]

# A video titled "Miss France 2008 fucking," that Paladino called "a keeper." [Basic Pornography, not a biggie except for the hypocrisy it exposes]

# An image of Barack and Michelle Obama dressed like a pimp and a prostitute, with the subject line, "White House ball." [Racist]

# An image with the caption, "HOLY SHIT, run niggers, run." [Racist]

# A bestiality video featuring a man and a horse. [Bestiality]

And apparently that is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean THIS GUY WANTS TO BE GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK!!! And the Teabaggers and Republicans love him. He even has Michael Caputo (another Republican sleaze that Daily Gotham has taken on) running his campaign.

But there is more. Paladino has also shown himself, in the eyes of many Jews, to be anti-Semtitic, dredging up slurs and down playing the Holocaust.

Racism and anti-Semitism rhetoric has become increasingly acceptable among the right wing. Intolerance has become an accepted value among all too many Republicans. The latest example of this is Republican nominee for NY Governor Carl Paladino. It seems this guy isn't just infamous for his racism and love for bestiality videos (I kid you not!) but also his anti-Semitism and trivializing the Holocaust.

From the Huffington Post:

"If I could ever describe a person who would fit the bill of an Antichrist or a Hitler, this guy is it," Paladino said. "I'm sure Chris had no -- absolutely no -- intention whatsoever of insulting the Jewish faith or the ethnic group or religion."--Carl Paladino

Of course this comes in addition to Paladino's blatant racism:

Paladino has sent emails that include:

# A popular video among white supremacists called "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal," that includes dancing African tribesmen.

# A video titled "Miss France 2008 fucking," that Paladino called "a keeper."

# An image of Barack and Michelle Obama dressed like a pimp and a prostitute, with the subject line, "White House ball."

# An image with the caption, "HOLY SHIT, run niggers, run."

# A bestiality video featuring a man and a horse.

And this is by no means the first or only example of Republican anti-Semitism. Nor anti-Semitism within Fox News, the extremist right wing media.

Paladino's campaign manager, the strange and well-known liar Michael Caputo, of course blames the liberal media for focusing on Paladino's offensive slurs rather than facing up to the fact that Paladino owes all Jews and all WW II Veterans an apology for his stupid and offensive remarks: (also from the Huffington Post article)

If the liberal media or the left-wing government officials in Albany are offended by politically incorrect speech, they need to pull up their underpants and get ready for a very difficult ride.

But I think Paladino and the racist Republicans may be the ones in for a difficult ride because it really isn't the liberal media who is angry over this. It is the Jews Paladino insulted. The Anti-Defamation League (let's hear Michael "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" Caputo claim the ADL is liberal) has attacked Paladino's comments:

Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman sharply condemned Paladino's remarks in a call with the Huffington Post. "It crosses several lines. It's outrageous, it's insulting, it's offensive, it trivializes who and what Hitler was and did," he said. "To compare Sheldon Silver -- who also happens to be a practicing Orthodox Jew -- to an Antichrist and Hitler -- and Antichrist is borderline anti-semetic -- to compare him to Hitler is just beyond the pale.

I can only assume the ADL uses the term "Beyond the Pale" with full knowledge of its history and implications.

The frequency with which right wing extremists like Paladino and Caputo use the Hitler reference, and thus trivialize Nazism and the Holocaust and down play the sacrifice of America's WW II veterans, indicates to me that they long ago abandoned the Jewish vote. Today's Republican party would rather cater to racists and anti-Semites than to Jews or Hispanics or pretty much any other minority. And I think this is going to hurt them more than they think. These kinds of racist and anti-Semitic comments alienate voters in the long run. Few people really want to be associated with blatant and public intolerance. And some Republicans realize this and have distanced themselves from Paladino (e.g. Al D'Amato). But other Republicans have refused to distance themselves from Paladino and accept his racism and anti-Semitism with no objection. And this is being made an issue in some local races. Democrat George Sava has challenged Republican Dean Skelos to repudiate Paladino's offensive comments towards Jews and Skelos has refused to comment. From George Sava's campaign:

SKELOS FAILS TO REPUDIATE ANTI-SEMITIC, BIGOTED SLURS
Leader has obligation to decency in public discourse
“His silence proves Skelos will do anything to gain political power”

Nearly a week after giving his unconditional support to gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino, Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos still refuses to condemn anti-Semitic and racist comments made by the controversial candidate.

George Sava, Nassau County Senate candidate in the 9th SD, is calling on Skelos to unequivocally repudiate Paladino’s bigoted and intolerant behavior. “As the highest-ranking elected official from the Republican Party in New York and in the Senate, you have an obligation to uphold standards of decorum and decency acceptable in public discourse, and to condemn those who fail to do so,” George Sava said in a letter to Senator Skelos.

“Carl Paladino has repeated the most ancient and disgraceful libels which have been used to justify extreme acts of violence and persecution for centuries. Your failure to condemn him reinforces the belief that you have no principles and will do anything to gain political power,” Sava said. Last year, Skelos joined forces with disgraced senators Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate in a failed power grab that paralyzed state government.

Paladino has compared the Orthodox Jewish Speaker of the State Assembly Sheldon Silver to the anti-Christ and Hitler, a move that led the Anti-Defamation League and countless newspapers to denounce him as a bigot. Paladino has also sent emails using the vulgar racial slur against blacks, as well as misogynist and pornographic messages.

In a letter to Sen. Skelos (attached), George Sava writes “Immediately following Mr. Paladino’s primary victory, you unconditionally embraced his candidacy. Since then you have remained silent even as prominent members of your own party have repudiated his intolerable actions and comments. Your silence is troubling.”

Hateful, intolerant, stupid Republicans like Paladino and Skelos or articulate, intelligent and tolerant Democrats like George Sava...the choice seems obvious to me.

White supremacy, racism, anti-Semtitism, pornography, and bestiality. Are THESE the values of the Teabaggers, Michael Caputo, and the Republican Party? After last night I think we can say that they are. Paladino is just one in a VERY long line of Republican sleazebags who love to talk about morality but in practice are nastier than I could ever imagine.

Way to go Republicans. You have now unequivocally associated your party with bestiality, anti-Semitism, and racism.