I was forwarded a copy of “the email” earlier today. My first instinct was to try to determine whether it was a valid email. After all, it’s pretty easy to fake an email these days by copying and pasting. After verifying that the email address of the sender was a valid one, around 2:30pm I sent Dave Bartholomew an email, asking him for a phone number where he could be reached. Almost immediately I got a return email with his number in it and I called him and left him a message. Within a few minutes, he returned my call.
While I could not recall meeting Mr. Bartholomew before, he recalled meeting me on several occasions. I told him the purpose of my call and read him the email that I had been forwarded (below the fold). He had no specific recollection of that particular email but said that he did forward jokes that others had sent him to some people. In this particular case, there were five email addresses that the email was sent to. One was his sister, one was his brother-in-law, one was a former legislator, and one was a friend of his. (Another individual with whom I spoke identified the last email address as that of a judge.)
Bartholomew, who has been chair of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach since November, sounded contrite when we spoke. He said that he is not a racist and that he had been involved in outreach to various minority communities, including the African American and the Filipino communities in Virginia Beach. He told me he was a Reagan Republican and a believer in the big tent. He encouraged me to talk to members of the communities, naming several with whom I am familiar. (I have not had time to reach out to them as of this writing.)
Within half an hour, I received two emails linking to the story on Blue Virginia. Not long after, I had received several more copies of the email from various sources. A little after 5pm I received Glenn Nye’s press release, before 6pm the release from the DPVA.
In the space of less than four hours, this had gone full circle, with everyone, including Scott Rigell, condemning the email and calling for Bartholomew’s resignation.
Dave Bartholomew was wrong to send that email around – there is no doubt about that. The action will cost him his chairmanship. Whether he is a racist or not is irrelevant – the email certainly was.
But does anybody wonder where a seven month-old email came from?
I am told that there was a sixth person to which that email was sent. The name was deleted before the email was sent around to everybody today. One can only assume that it was that sixth person – or someone close to him – who sent out the email today. One of the people I talked to earlier today – before I was made aware of his name – was that sixth person. Once his name becomes public – and it will, because as soon as I get my hands on the original email I intend to publish his name – today’s little activity is going to backfire right on him.
This is the rubbernecking I spoke of last week, where our attention is diverted from the issues and instead focused on the car wreck. It is the politics of personal destruction, something that, as a former candidate, I abhor.
The email that Dave Bartholomew sent (email addresses of recipients removed):
From: DBARH2O@aol.com [mailto:DBARH2O@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 11:26 AM
To:
Subject: my ,dog________________________________
MY DOG
I went down this morning to sign up my Dog for welfare.At first the lady said, “Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare”.
So I explained to her that my Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can’t speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is.
So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify…
My Dog gets his first check Friday.
Is this is a great country or what?
UPDATE: Another group calls for Bartholomew’s resignation:
Virginia Black Republican Leaders Call for Immediate Resignation of Virginia Beach GOP Chairman
For Immediate Release October 18, 2010
Contacts:
Terrence Boulden -571.641.9780/tjboulden@gmail.com
Coby W. Dillard – 757.346.9178/coby.w.dillard@gmail.com
Norfolk-Black Republicans from across Virginia have signed a letter to David Bartholomew, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach (RPVB), demanding his immediate resignation. The demand is a result of a highly offensive email forwarded by him to his email lists and picked up by bloggers and commentators nationwide.
“It is unfortunate that, this close to Election Day, a leader of our Republican Party decides that this is the best time to send this email,” said Coby W. Dillard of Norfolk. “It’s incidents like this that sour the black community’s relationship to the Republican Party, and hurt our credibility as messengers of the Party.”
The text of the letter, being delivered to the RPVB headquarters tomorrow morning, reads:
Dear Chairman Bartholomew,
We, the undersigned Republicans, demand your immediate, public resignation as Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach.
Your forwarded email, entitled “My Dog,” is a wholly inappropriate action for a Republican Party chairman to take, especially when Virginia’s black Republicans are working hard for our Party and our candidates statewide. It is also a slap in the face of our lone black Republican candidate, Chuck Smith.
Your job as chairman is to serve as a leader of the local Republican unit, and it is critical that at this point in the campaign season that our units have leaders that have not only the complete confidence of our candidates and state leadership, but of those working at the grassroots level. In our view, your failed attempt at “satire” is inexcusable and makes you unfit to serve as a leader of our Party in any position, locally or statewide.
We expect your resignation within the next 24-48 hours. Your resignation is the only acceptable resolution to this situation.
A copy of this letter will be forwarded to the 2nd District GOP chairman and the RPV Chairman.
Signed:
Terrence Boulden, Fairfax, Chairman, FCRC African American Outreach Coalition
Nigel Coleman, Danville
Coby W. Dillard, Norfolk
Sonnie Johnson, Woodbridge, President, Frederick Douglass Foundation of Virginia
V.M. Ross, Jr., Richmond
Don Scoggins, Woodbridge, President, Frederick Douglass Republican Forum of VA
Carl Tate, Staunton
Gilbert Wilkerson, Richmond
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Wow. Words escape me. And the Republican leadership wonders why their outreach programs fail.
Wake up people, your forwarded emails will come back to haunt you!!! I have been outraged by some of the “jokes” that I have received and just recently sent a email asking to be removed from some of these lists. I subscribe to the theory, if it is not something that I would be proud to say aloud in a crowded room, I should not be forwarding it, and use the delete key to end it.
I cannot be so charitable as you. The jokes you tell tell about you.
I would not tell such a joke. Period.
I still have uncomfortable memories of my father telling two much much milder stories (which I am sure he regreted later) fifty years ago.
Heck, I tried to tell the news story–not the joke–to my friend, and she refused to listen, because she knew the type of joke involved.
Hatefulness under a veneer of humor is still hatefulness.
Persons who cannot figure out what they can and cannot say in public–well, ’nuff said.
Double for public figures.
It reads: “It is unfortunate that, this close to Election Day, a leader of our Republican Party decides that this is the best time to send this email,” said Coby W. Dillard of Norfolk.”
Mr Dillard doesn’t know it was sent on 15 March 2010. Second: his comments related to “this close to Election Day” indicate to me that Mr. Dillard would find it more acceptable if it was sent after election day or farther from election day.
In both cases, Mr. Dillard looks like an uninformed self serving GOP political hack covering his own as* to try to get out of this racist political mess. Sad…
(with apologies to Vivian)
William, I don’t know you, and you don’t know a thing about me…so let me enlighten you a little:
I’m a black Republican here in Norfolk. If you’re black-or even if you’re not-you can probably understand how difficult that can be.
Or maybe you’re one of the many people who doesn’t understand how foolishness like this makes the lives of myself and others in my circles far more difficult. Because, as Vivian alludes to, when I go out and talk about Republican candidates to other blacks, I’m not going to get to talk about issues-I get to talk about THIS.
Now, in fairness, the language was changed:
“It is unfortunate that, this close to Election Day, a leader of our Republican Party is revealed to have sent this email,” said Coby W. Dillard of Norfolk. “It’s incidents like this that sour the black community’s relationship to the Republican Party, and hurt our credibility as messengers of the Party.”
I almost found it interesting that you didn’t get past my first sentence to see the REAL problem in my second.
But, strangely, I’ve come to expect that…
Mr. Dillard: I have found an other issue with your comments. When you and other GOP members feel the need to “enlighten” me, I see a problem.
Thanks for the offer but I’ll take “Change & Hope” over being enlightened…
Has no one here ever heard one of Chris Rock’s routines, any of Eddie Murphy’s stuff, or for you oldsters, Redd Foxx?
Same material.
The only difference is that this was sent out by a White Man, who also is burdened by being in the (gasp!) Republican Party.
Good satire and satirical humor is only good when it has a foundation in truth.
We are in the Twenty-first Century, for heaven’s sake.
When will someone finally drive a stake through the heart of political correctness and rid us of this nuisance, along with its spawn of seemingly endless political sideshows, so that we can perhaps have an honest debate on the real problems that we all face.
For example, how many more jobs have been lost during the last twenty-four hours while people were wringing their hands over an emailed joke?
Hint: The Communist Chinese are still working hard to drive America into the dirt and our politicians are going right along with them, and this, unfortunately, is NOT a joke; it is the reality that we and our children are facing. NO JOBS!
By the way, that dog joke reminded me of another. Pardon if I butcher it in type, but I’ll give it a try:
A DOG goes into a bank.
He goes up to the loan officer, Mr. Paddywhack, and asks for a loan.
Mr. Paddywhack, being the savvy banker, looks the dog in the eyes and says, “Well, have you got any sort of collateral?”
The dog places what looks to be a small trinket up on Mr. Paddywhack’s desk. Paddywhack looks at the item intently and says, “I don’t know…this is pretty small. Let me call for my manager.” Paddywhack makes the call and in a few minutes the manager appears, greeting both the dog and Paddywhack.
Mr. Paddywahck leans away from the dog and whispers to the manager, He wants a loan, but all that he has for collateral is just this little trinket. I am inclined to refuse the loan.”
The manager then looks intently at the item that had been placed on the desk, and his expression suddenly brightens. The manager then bellows, “Why, that’s no trinket…
That’s a nick-nack, Paddywhack, give the dog a loan.”
You butchered it. He was supposed to claim that Mick Jagger is his father, so it ends with, “It’s a nick-knack, Paddywhack, give the dog a loan; his old man’s a Rolling Stone.”
Never heard that version.
The Rolling Stone tag fits nicely, though.
Never heard that version.
The Rolling Stone tag fits nicely, though.
I am still wondering why anybody would think that such emails are rare or shocking among republicans. It is clear to see every year during the state of the union speech what they think of a big tent. I always look to the republican side and since I have been active in politics, about 34 years, their side of the aisle has never been a reflection of the United States. It has always been white heterosexual males with a few white women thrown in. Why would anyone be shocked by the email, I expect it.