Oh fer chrissakes

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In case you needed more evidence that racism is alive and well - despite the fact that our President is a BLACK MAN!!1!!1! - check out this lovely email sent by a Republican (natch) staffer in Tennessee:

(CNN) -- The chairman of Tennessee's Democratic Party wants a Republican legislative aide fired for sending out a "reprehensible" e-mail depicting President Obama as two cartoonish white eyes peering from a black background.

Obama's image is in the last square of a collage containing portraits of the previous 43 U.S. presidents. The e-mail, which was sent to other GOP staff members, was posted on the Internet Monday.

Sherri Goforth, an administrative assistant to state Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, has admitted she sent the e-mail May 28 with the title "Historical Keepsake Photo." She said, without elaborating, that she mistakenly sent it "to the wrong list of people."

According to the Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper, a note on the e-mail said it was paid for by the Tennessee Republican Party, but GOP officials denied they produced it. Black leads the Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus.

There was no comment from the White House as of Tuesday afternoon.

Black rebuked Goforth but didn't dismiss her.

"I want to be sure that everyone understands that the communication was sent without my knowledge," Black said Tuesday afternoon. "It absolutely does not represent the beliefs or opinions of my office. I want to be very clear about that."

The senator said as soon as she found out about the e-mail, she consulted the Legislature's human resources office, then followed their advice.

"Ms. Goforth did get a verbal reprimand as well as a very strongly worded reprimand, written, that was put in her file that if this should ever occur again, that she would be terminated," Black said.

"This is an employee who has had a stellar record," Black said. She added that Goforth has worked in state government for more than 20 years, and has had a clean record.

"We followed policy. And that's what you do when someone breaks the rules, you follow policy," she said.

A phone message left for Goforth by CNN was not answered.

"Is this indicative of what Senate Republicans think about our commander-in-chief?" asked state Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester in a statement posted on the party's Web site.

"I am calling on Sen. Black to reject this racist smear and fire this staffer who, on state government time, on state government computers, using a state government e-mail account, launched this bigoted attack on our president," Forrester said. "Keeping her on the staff would send the message that this type of behavior is condoned by the Senate Republican Caucus."

"This e-mail is reprehensible, insults the office of the president, and is embarrassing to all Tennesseans regardless of political party," Forrester said.

Goforth told Christian Grantham of the Web site Nashville Is Talking that she had received a letter of reprimand from her superiors but will remain on the job.

Grantham said Goforth told him she felt "very bad about accidentally sending it to the wrong list" of people. "I inadvertently hit the wrong button," Grantham quoted Goforth as saying. "I'm very sick about it, and it's one of those things I can't change or take back."

Forrester, in his Web posting, said, "Ms. Goforth does not seem to understand what she did wrong. She has apologized for 'sending [the e-mail] to the wrong list of people.' I believe that any list of people would have recognized this e-mail as offensive and hateful."

State Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, a member of the black and Democratic caucuses, said Goforth should be dismissed.

"I don't think a reprimand is enough. I think this lady needs to go. I don't think she should be a part of the people who represent the state of Tennessee," Shaw said.

He said Goforth and Black, as well as Republican Lt. Gov. and Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, should make public apologies for the incident.

"I am appalled. It's despicable. It's disgusting. It should not have happened, but it does happen," Shaw said. "It is the president of our country that we're talking about."

Several other black Democratic lawmakers agreed Goforth should quit.

"The last thing we need in the state of Tennessee is to send out the impression and the image that we are still stuck in some backwater mentality and culture that feels it's OK to depict the president of the United States in that fashion," state Rep. John Deberry Jr., D-Memphis, told CNN Radio.

Forrester added: "Unfortunately, Sherri Goforth's e-mail joins the list of shameful episodes by Tennessee Republicans, from the infamous 'Birds of a Feather' direct-mail piece that featured black crows with the heads of Barack Obama and [African-American] Rep. Nathan Vaughn, to the "Barack the Magic Negro" song that former Tennessee GOP Party Chairman Chip Saltsman sent to RNC members during his failed campaign for RNC chair."

Couldn't this woman come up with a better excuse than she "sent it to the wrong list of people?" I wonder if she wears a pointy white hood to work?

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The fake controversy created by the Republicans over Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court mostly just has me rolling my eyes - she's not a racist, she's not a radical, and she will be confirmed. End of story. But what has bothered me more than the pretend outrage that an "activist judge" (read: liberal) is going to be our next Supreme Court Justice is the passive-aggressive suggestions by some that Judge Sotomayor somehow isn't qualified - or, in the words of Karl Rove and Jeffrey Rosen (quoting an anonymous former law clerk), she's just "not that smart."

What? I'm sorry, WHAT??? This is a woman who graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and Yale Law School. She has served as a federal district court judge and a federal appellate judge for 17 years. I think it's fair to criticize her, and any judge, on their record - as in, you can believe that a judge is wrong, or misguided, or has an agenda. I believe all of those things about, for example, Justice Antonin Scalia. But would I EVER deign to call him "not that smart"? Would anyone? No, they wouldn't. And you know why no one will ever call Justice Scalia's intelligence into question, or for that matter, the intelligence of Clarence Thomas (who, by the way, never utters a peep on the bench)? Because they are men, and they are presumptively "smart enough" to be Supreme Court Justices. But a woman? Not so much.

A lot has been made about Judge Sotomayor's ethnicity as the first Latino Supreme Court Justice, and rightly so. It's an important milestone for both the Latino community and the country as a whole, and given the fact that 8 out of 9 people on the Supreme Court are currently White (and the other one is Clarence Thomas, so the Court is for all intents and purposes 100% White), I welcome the diversity she will bring to the bench based on her life experience as a Latina. But I think the disparaging comments about her intellect - the insinuation that somehow, this very accomplished woman doesn't deserve this high honor - is as much about gender as it is race. Remember, she will be only the THIRD woman in the history of the Court if she is confirmed. This sense that Judge Sotomayor can't play with the big boys - that her intellect is no match for the great (male) minds already on the Court - has a serious overtone of misogyny that is disturbing to me. Judge Sotomayor's resume is just as impressive, if not more so, than those of the men who currently sit on the Court. But there is this underlying insinuation that her accomplishments don't matter; that still, she's somehow not good enough.

I find this to be incredibly depressing. As a (relatively) young woman, and a lawyer, I have always assumed that someday, I will reach some objective level of "success" or accomplishment that will insulate me from the accusation that I'm "not that smart," or that I don't belong playing with the big boys. Because regardless of the fact that more than half of the people in law school nowadays are women, I assure you - the law is still very much an old boys' club. I do not look forward to getting older, but I have been looking forward to the respect I assumed age and experience would confer upon me. Of course, I will never be a federal judge with 17 years of distinguished service on the bench - and I certainly don't have the Princeton/Yale Law pedigree - but nonetheless, I felt that I would eventually pay my dues and have enough experience that no one could seriously question my competency, or suggest that whatever accolades I receive or the good work I've done isn't actually that good. In short, I've always assumed that my work would speak for itself, regardless of my gender.

Unfortunately, the attacks on Judge Sotomayor have convinced me otherwise. Her substantial accomplishments have been attacked and undermined, with the implication being that she has been given a pass in life because of her race and her gender. Will we ever realize Dr. King's dream - to be judged on the content of our character, rather than the color of our skin? Will our humanity ever trump our sexuality? And most importantly - will we ever question the accomplishments of White men the way we do women and people of color as somehow "undeserved" because they are the beneficiaries of centuries of race and gender privilege? Sadly, something tells me no.

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