Last week a member of the Orange County Republican Party, Marilyn Davenport, who also just happens to be a Southern California Tea Party activist, sent out an email to her fellow conservatives depicting the President of the United States as a monkey with monkey parents, complete with a caption saying, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”
I suppose in the white bread world of Orange County – or in Jefferson Davis’ Administration – this kind of thing is considered funny, but one has to wonder what kind of person would think so.
When asked by reporters if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, “Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.”
Well Marilyn you got part of it right, you didn’t think. No thinking person would send out this picture and then have the gall to say, “It was a joke. I have friends who are black.”
But not all the Republicans who received the email were amused.
“It’s unbelievable,” an Orange County Republican said. “It’s much more racist than the watermelon email. I can’t believe it was sent out. I’m not an Obama fan but how stupid do you have to be to do this?”
Another Republican said Davenport is “a really, really sweet old lady so I am surprised to hear about this.”
Yeah, she’s a really, really sweet old lady, with (to borrow a phrase from Glenn Beck) a deep seated hatred of black people, but she’s really, really sweet.
The Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, told the really, really sweet old lady that the email was tasteless; but of course Miss Daisy – er, I mean Davenport said, “You’re not going to make a big deal about this are you? It’s just an Internet joke.”
But Baugh – much to his credit – believes the so-called email joke is a big deal.
“When I saw that email … I thought it was despicable,” he said. “It is dripping with racism and it does not promote the type of message Orange County Republicans want to deliver to the public. I think she should consider stepping down as an elected official.”
And Baugh isn’t alone in his condemnation, Michael J. Schroeder, an Orange County resident and former chairman of the California Republican Party, also said he was disgusted.
“This is a three strikes situation for Marilyn Davenport,” Schroeder said. “She was a passionate defender of former Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols, who stated that he was voting against putting in more grass at Corona del Mar’s beach because, he said, there were already ‘too many Mexicans on the beach.’ She was also on the wrong side of the fence with the Los Alamitos mayor and his White House watermelon patch picture. Now, she has managed to top both of those incidents by comparing African Americans to monkeys. She has disgraced herself and needs to resign. If she doesn’t, the Republican Party must remove her.”
In February 2009, Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose, another Orange County Republican, emailed the White House watermelon image and then apologized.
On Saturday afternoon Davenport sent an email to fellow Orange County Republican elected officials, apologizing if anyone was offended by her depicting President Barack Obama as an ape, while simultaneously blasting the “liberal media” for reporting the story.
“I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth,” Davenport wrote. “In no way did I even consider the fact he’s half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people [Scott Baugh, Orange County GOP boss, and a member of the media] tried to make this about race. . . . I received plenty of emails about George Bush that I didn’t particularly like yet there was no ‘cry’ in the media about them.”
Excuse me? Is this is another case of, “just how stupid do you think we are?” Does Davenport really think average – non-racist – Americans are for one second going to buy her story? She didn’t think anything about race when she depicted the president – who’s black – as a monkey, and his parents as monkeys? Yeah, OK, I’ll buy that, and do you have a bridge to sell me too?
But wait, Miss – I’m not a racist – Davenport wasn’t through defending herself, “That being said, I will NOT resign my central committee position over this matter that the average person knows and agrees is much to do about nothing.”
The average person knows and agrees WHAT?! ARE YOU INSANE?! Were you dropped – repeatedly – as a child? Did you fall out of the dim-wit tree and hit every branch on the way down? You can’t be serious? You actually accept as true that “the average person knows and agrees [this] is much to do about nothing.”? I’m sorry but no one is this thick.
Of course you just knew that where there’s one racist there have to be more, and that some fellow right wing lunatic would rush to defend Davenport. And here he is, white robes flowing and torch in hand, fellow conservative Orange County Republican activist in Santa Ana, Tim Whitacre, “Marilyn Davenport is a staunch, ethical Republican lady. There is nothing unethical about this from a party standpoint because it wasn’t sent out to the party at large with any racist statements and it wasn’t signed as a central committee member. As a private individual, she is just real big on Birther stuff. One of her passions that drives her is the president’s lack of forthrightness about where he was born. Marilyn believes that nobody knows where he was born and so this picture says a thousand words.”
Whitacre continued: “She is not a perfect lady, but she is no racist. She is a gentle person who would feed you, help you, be there for you if you were in trouble. She is known as a pleasant, loving person, and it kills me that she is being attacked by this non-story knowing her mindset.”
She’s a perfect what? I have no doubt Whitacre believes every word of what he’s saying, but look here Tim; a “perfect lady” would never have sent the image. A “perfect racist” would; but a “perfect lady” would never have even thought of it, and would have been extremely offended to have received it. So, please, spare us your right wing Tea Party, birther, rhetoric. Grow up, be a man, and admit this was wrong. There’s nothing “ethical” in what she did, and her actions prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is no lady.
As of Sunday evening Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh had determined that his group’s bylaws prevented a vote to remove Marilyn Davenport as an elected member, even though she emailed a racist image of President Barack Obama to fellow Tea Baggers and Republicans.
If sending a disgustingly racist image of the President to her fellow members of the GOTP wasn’t enough to have her not just removed, but forcefully removed, one has to ask, what exactly would Davenport have to do that would justify being kicked out of the Orange County Republican Party?
The Liberty Tree 
