Thursday, July 10, 2008

GOP club accused of racism for Obama web banner

By Cynthia Burton

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.

Rick Perr, chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Committee, said that, although the phrase was taken down, he preserved a copy of it.

Comparing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, the presumed Democratic nominee for president, "to O.J. Simpson, an accused murderer who was found civilly liable for his ex-wife's death, is reprehensible," Perr said in a statement. "Moreover, it is a veiled attempt at inserting race into the political arena, for which the Republicans should be ashamed."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080709_N_J__GOP_club_accused_of_racism.html

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