GOP NJ Website Compares Obama to O.J.

It's hard to remember a moderate Republican Party if you're my age. There was once such a thing. There were even liberal Republicans once. Think of Teddy Roosevelt. Think Republican turned Independent John Anderson who ran for President in 1980. Think of Connecticut's Lowell Weicker.

What happened? It's a long story. For a lot of reasons, the GOP was hijacked by the Far Right. It's always been an uneasy coalition of libertarians, pro-business types, and the religious right. But it's held together for 30 years.

Now it's falling apart. I know a lot of Republicans who don't fit the ultra-conservative model represented by the hate-mongers that have driven the party starboard in the last couple of decades. It's hard to imagine the Republicans of the 1950's running a campaign like Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey's "Inmates for Deval." It was pure nastiness.

The Republican Party in one New Jersey county has thinking along the same lines. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

A banner slogan on the Pemberton Republican Club's Web site that said, "Obama loves America like O.J. loved Nicole," disappeared yesterday after local Democrats alleged racist campaign tactics.

The Web master, Ed Kuck, a recently elected Republican County committeeman, said he had seen the slogan on an Internet site and copied it onto the club's Web page about a month ago as "a joke."

He removed it yesterday from the site, http://homewebs.net/pem, after a community person told him it would offend people, he said.

"I found out it was inappropriate, and I took it down," Kuck said, adding: "I just want to apologize to anybody who was offended, because that wasn't our intention at all."

Pemberton Councilwoman Diane Stinney said a Republican friend had called to tell her about the ad, saying: "I just want you to know I'm very disappointed with our Republican page."

Stinney then reported it to fellow Democrats.

She said the slogan had offended her, adding that Pemberton is a very diverse community.

"We've come a very long way, and we people of different colors still have a lot of growing up to do, but there are other issues that the two [presidential] candidates have to and should be addressing," she said.

Mr. Kuck must be a funny guy.

--Mb