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The executive committee of the Orange County GOP voted 12-2 today to censure Marilyn Davenport, an elected member of the Central Committee, for her transmission of a doctored photo showing a baby Obama held in the arms of two chimps. The vote to censure was the strongest action that could have been taken by the County GOP under its current bylaws and rules.
The vote to censure was based upon rules that prohibits members of the Central Committee from taking actions “that intentionally causes embarrassment to the party.” “Her actions resulted in three days of intense negative media and public scrutiny,” commented current OC GOP Pary Chairman Scott Baugh. “She was censured because she knew the email she was sending out was controversial,” Baugh said after this morning’s vote. “After it went out, she downplayed it as a joke. Instead of owning up to her error, she immediately sought to blame others.”
Interestingly, Tim Whitacre, another Central Committee member, criticized the vote to censure vote and dismissed it as “inconsequential.” Whitacre apparently was willing to defend the transmission of the cartoon despite its obvious racist message. Whitacre remarked that the vote was more about his political rival Scott Baugh’s desire to extract punishment rather than a real effort to properly use County GOP guidelines. What I found most interesting about Whitacre’s comments is that he seemed to refuse to deal with the real issue – was Davenport’s email racist, offensive and detrimental to the party – and instead tried to sidestep the issue and use the opportunity to attack Scott Baugh. Whitacre’s actions are poorly thought out and reflective of many in politics who would rather side step than take responsibility.
To date Davenport has refused to step down from her office despite the calls from many including Scott Baugh for her resignation.
The OC GOP did the only thing that was right and will probably be their saving grace. If whitacre and others express much more disregard for the whole fiasco and criticise Baugh and the exec committee, it may be even more damaging tot he GOP. LETS HOPE HE DOES lol.
They never censured Mike Carona.
*Tony dude,
Mike never dressed up like a monkey…..either! Davenport was so far off…..even Mad Magazine would have censored that transmission.
Congrats to Baugh…..Whitacre always seems to be on the back side of every key issue. Does
his depth perception ever work at all?
Gee thats a surprise!
This place (the OCGOP) is a house of dysfunction. But as long as Baugh has Schoeder and the likes of Wiskol in his pocket he’ll continue the charade.
It’s time for the OC GOP to move on and FIRE Scott Baugh.
“They never censured Mike Carona.”
Nice call Tony. They don’t like to come down too hard on guys who go to jail like Corona who line their pockets. BUT they will stand up tall against the granny who pushes the send button instead of delete when they get an off colored joke. They are such brave men the leadership of the OCGOP!
“Whitacre always seems to be on the back side of every key issue”
I guess if back side is code for right side then you might be on to something Ron/Anna (by the way, who signs posts with the names of both a husband and a wife???) Let’s see, Tim stood up against Corona, Nativo Lopez, Sal Tinajero, and many other jailbirds and Democrats who had the Baugh/Shroader/Lincoln Club stamp of approval. Tim is one Former Marine I’ll follow into battle any day of the week!
Can I say, it’s a good thing they censured Marilyn, and it’s inexcusable they never censured the Little Sheriff?
I never thought I’d stick up for Baugh, but he did the right thing here. I know he’s looking out for the image of the OCGOP with minorities, and also he wants the party to keep focused on the important things like destroying the working class in the OC, but still, he did the right thing.
Whitacre’s out of control, he’ll jump on any issue to antagonize Baugh and his crowd. This is really what you want to throw down the gauntlet on? The right to send out monkey photos of black presidents? Semper fi!
(Oh, and Marilyn’s not as stupid and innocent as she pretends to be.)
Vern, I agree about Carona, but I don’t understand your point about Davenport. Yes, her email was offensive, but (evidently) she was censured because she “intentionally” caused the party embarrassment.
To cause embarrassment intentionally means to cause embarrassment knowing that one’s action will cause embarrassment. But there is no evidence that Davenport had any such knowledge or belief. That she knew that her email was “controversial” does not entail that she sent it intending embarrassment. And so Baugh and Co. seem to me to be flatly misinterpreting the bylaws.
Aside from that, the spectacle of a group censuring a member for beliefs and attitudes that are in fact common among the membership is disturbing in its ugly hypocrisy. If I were a member of the local GOP, I wouldn’t go after Davenport; I’d deal directly with the manifest fact that many Republicans are incapable of comprehending what is offensive about the original image — and the fact that many are incapable of comprehending the racism implicit in this whole “birther” business. This clueless lady should not, by herself, be paying for a vice common to her group. An ugly business, that. Really ugly.
I’m going by the fact that Marilyn evidently was a strenuous defender of both Dean Grose’s watermelon patch e-mail two years ago and Dick Nichols’ “Too many Mexicans in Newport” comment a couple years before that. This racial “humor” is something she strongly believes in, even if she didn’t intend her chimpmail to get into the wrong hands.
Did you see my bagatelle on the dustup, Professor? I think you might enjoy it.
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/04/in-the-wake-of-davenport-and-grose-the-ocgop-race-samizdat-parties/
I replied to this some time ago but evidently my response is lost in the ether world. There is simply nothing at all racist about the “whole birther business.” If someone was trying to run at age 33, appropriate challenges to their qulaifications would not make the challengers “agist.” The founding fathers required birth in the country intentionally and for a reason – neither of which had anything to do with racism.
Oh yeah I remember you saying that. It came out as “anonymous” for some reason. I thought, oh great, some guy who really thinks this birther stuff would have happened – and persisted after two years of proof – to a white guy named say John Williams. No arguing with this commenter, I thought. I was hoping it wasn’t you, but didn’t check the IP address.
When I post from my IPhone (as opposed to my IPad, work computer or office computer) I can’t get it to take my name – not ducking responsibility, simply a computer glitch. Yes, I think that “John Williams” with no birth certificate (and so far we have a “summary copy” and a after the fact “long form”) would be just as controversial.
John F. Kennedy wasn’t that long ago and folks had a field day over his Catholicism.
Yeah. JFK had to deal with anti-Catholic bigotry, which was a lot more common 50 years ago.
And for Barack, the standard short form that everybody else uses in Hawaii would have been fine, but for the fact that he was black and had a Muslim-sounding name.
Not sure how you think JFK’s experience helps your argument that Obama birtherism isn’t racist.
“(Oh, and Marilyn’s not as stupid and innocent as she pretends to be.)”……… Hmmmm
Obviously, if she was censured by them “stupid and innocent”.
Folks, the racism is good!
It separates Apes from Moron Mongoloids.
“This is really what you want to throw down the gauntlet on? The right to send out monkey photos of black presidents? ”
My kids in their wonderful public school are being taught that we all come from monkeys. What’s the big deal if someone wants to connect the dots visually in an email photo?
and now for a little Devo:
Calling the “birther” issue racist is ridiculous and is calling the founding fathers racist. If someone running for President was 33, challenging his qualifications would not make you agist, simply following the law.
*Even a broken clock is right twice a day Little Sheriff. Being Army doesn’t mean we don’t like Marines. Most of our key people are Marines. But we would advise that there are a lot of very bad Marines….including Lee Harvey Oswald and the Texas Tower dude just to name a few.
Prior service does not necessarily create angels or saints or mean that they have any more credibility than anyone else. Nat Lopez? Even Tony V never liked that guy, much less a inline OC Republican. Nope, just a matter of taste and choice….in this case….you can keep the TW t-shirt concession and of course the Lenny Bruce meets Mrs. Davenport joke book.
*Oh Little Sheriff we forgot to answer your other issue: ” guess if back side is code for right side then you might be on to something Ron/Anna (by the way, who signs posts with the names of both a husband and a wife???) ”
Will and Ariel Durant for one! And NO dude…….”back side” is back side….not right, left or over or under.
You can always Google Will and Ariel as well as back side if you still don’t understand.
FYI, “Little Sheriff” is Sheriff Carona’s reference to his own penis.
Mirrored just in the case Larry Gilbert as a seizure from reading word “penis”.
You are right, Stan, all knowledgeable OC people should know that. And “penis” is a proper scientific word that should not be objectionable to Brother Larry.
Assuming that it was you comrade Vern who deleted my reply to Winships I am Mirroring that on too.
Just getting to be too much silly sexual double-entendres with no bearing on the topics at hand. Take a break sometimes comrade!
(If it were hilarious I would have kept it.)
Only practitioners knew the sexual meaning. I bet 95% of morons mongoloids reading this blog had no clue what it meant…….. but
In free society it is up to a reader not you to determine the meaning. However, you are too primitive dullard to understand that.
How much do you charge per hour Nelson to watch TV with me and determine for me what is hilarious with remote in your hand.
Beer.
promises, promises, promises……..
I’m very disappointed in the OCGOP. They need to just own it. Quit being so chicken hearted. I say let er’ rip. If you can say it in private dining rooms at the Pacific Club , you should say it publicly for all to hear.
In the Shrubs famous quote………”Bring it on!”.
Davenports biggest sin was being overheard.