Blue Collar Muse has posted photos from an email sent by someone associated with an unnamed Tennessee Democratic lawmaker. Blue Collar Muse does not report that information but reports the email makes fun of child abuse, the elderly and people with disabilities (photo above is one of those sent in the email).
At the same time that story was breaking, in what can only be seen as a historic case of irony, a Democratic staffer sent an email that was even worse.
Titled “Smiles for Monday”, this email made fun of Racism:
There’s more, of course, with vulgar language (including a couple of **F** bombs), quasi-nudity, and the Left’s puzzling fascination with Nazis.
What remains to be seen is whether the Left in Tennessee, and nationally, is willing to take a stand against Racism in Principle or show themselves merely interested in exploiting Racism by Party.
NIT has learned the email came from Rep. Karen Camper’s (D-Memphis) office. Rep. Camper was unavailable for comment as of this posting. As soon as we receive the photos from the email, we’ll post them here.
The latest example of unprofessional use of email on Capitol Hill follows national attention on a Tennessee Republican staffer’s racist email depicting President Barack Obama as a pair of eyes floating in darkness.
UPDATE: 12:11pm - Blue Collar Muse identifies the staffer who sent the email as Blake Graves, but the Tennessee Legislature website does not list a Blake Graves as an employee of the state.
UPDATE 12:46pm: Blue Collar Muse further reports Blake Graves was an intern, not a staffer as he originally reported. He also reports Graves immediately followed his email with an apology stating he had not read the text on the photos and that after he read them he realized they were inappropriate.
In comments to this post, a reader points out Graves was a legislative intern under Rep. Joe Towns (D-Memphis). Rep. Towns was not available for comment, but his legislative aid did confirm Graves is no longer an intern in the office and that offices do share interns from time to time.
UPDATE 2:13pm - The email sent by Blake Graves was sent Monday, June 15, 2009 12:11 PM and appeared to contain 11 graphics. Click here to see the graphics. I obscured adult language with red boxes. This graphic was montaged by me. Each graphic was a separate photo in the email.
UPDATE 3:00pm - Sean Braisted reports the intern who sent the offensive email at this center of this controversy is a Republican.
The “democrat” in question appears to be an intern, Blake Graves, who was recently honored by a house resolution citing him as being the “best dressed intern” and recognizing his numerous accomplishments, including “dedicat[ing] his singular skills to several student and civic organizations, including the Student Activities Council, the College Republicans, and volunteering for Hands on Memphis and Volunteer Memphis”. Yes, as an intern he was assigned to a Democrat, but it appears that his allegiances lie elsewhere.
UPDATE 3:08pm - The Nashville Scene cites sources saying the intern is now dismissed.
According to sources, House Speaker Kent Williams, acting at the request of Democratic leaders, already has dismissed the intern, who has been identified as Blake Graves who was working in the office of Rep. Karen Camper, D-Memphis.
Here is what some bloggers from across the state are saying about this latest report:
If you were to follow the line of logic set up by those who let their party affiliation dictate what they are outraged about and what the aren’t, the only logical conclusion would be that all Democrats and Republicans are stupid and/or racist.
I personally believe that making fun of someone because they do something stupid is within the bounds of propriety, but making fun or insulting someone because of something they cannot control, like skin color, mental retardation, gender, etc., are not. (And in the interest of disclosure, being blonde is not a protected class, and, actually more often than not, a choice, so it’s open game.)
Regardless, this whole thing is rather silly. Neither should be fired, as for Goforth, the GOP staffer, the woman has been publicly humiliated on an international stage…a pretty brutal public shaming is punishment enough for what was never intended to be a malicious act, but an act of poor taste.
Stung hard and reeling from news about a racist email from a 20-year Republican staffer in the Tennessee Legislature, a Memphis conservative blogger, Blue Collar Muse, shot back today that he had evidence of a cruel email sent out by a Democrat staffer in the legislature and that no outcry would follow from those who blasted the GOP staffer. I tried to find enough details about this email to respond, though it seemed more to me a “so and so did a bad thing too!!” kind of game that BCM wants to play.
NIT
News
[...] Nashville is Talking has said it’s a staffer out of Memphis. BCM hasn’t announced it yet, however, so I will [...]
Jeez, you guys can’t even get your hoaxes right…next time, check the staff directory, grab a name, your bullshit might fly a little higher.
[...] Is Talking » Another controversial email circulated on Capitol HillPosted 39 minutes [...]
Blake Graves is an intern (college student), working for Rep. Joe Towns (D-Memphis).
See here http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/Bill/HJR0482.pdf for confirmation.
So this intern sent it to all the House Democratic staffers? I’d sure love to see a comparable list of recipients.
This is pathetic. Not even in the same ballpark.
Not even that - let’s see some evidence that it was sent on state email at all.
@Hootie McBoob: If it was sent by an intern, it wasn’t sent on state email — LIS doesn’t provide email addresses for interns. (However, regular interns also finished at the end of May, so this kid may have been retained as a staffer and given an email address, even if he was an intern during the academic semester.) If he sent it during work, though, I don’t see how it being done on a personal email account that was accessed from a TNGA computer is remarkably better than Sherri using her TNGA email–still using TNGA time and resources for offensive and personal activities.
–Former TNGA Intern
May we just add to the state employee handbook, “Complete idiocy that serves no purpose but to hurt and offend others is grounds for immediate termination, whether employee is full-, part-time, elected or appointed status”?
Oooh. Now that I think of it, we could eliminate the budget shortfall in a week with THAT coda.
@Hootie:
highly entertaining to watch you guys falling all over yourselves to explain why THIS offensive email wasn’t racist, wasn’t sent by a Democrat, wasn’t sent to the same recipient list, etc…
thanks for being our object lesson of the day in what’s really going on here.
[...] Is Talking » Another controversial email circulated on Capitol HillPosted 3 hours [...]
Are we supposed to be outraged by this email? I guess my outrage threshold must be pretty high, because the graphics this intern sent strike me as something known as “humor.”
Your political affiliation can’t hide the insensitivity that exists with these photos. Anyone who believes politics isn’t dirty is fooling themselves. I was struck by Diane Blair in this Newsy.com report where she attempts to protect Capitol Hill Republicans from the controversy. Why won’t she reveal her source???
http://www.newsy.com/videos/e_hatred
The facts are that 1, he is not a republican, facebook profile, notice the Liberal: http://www.facebook.com/people/Blake-Graves/38903083
Second, he was not an intern (also see facebook profile). He was an intern that was kept on as a temp. staffer in Camper’s office.
The fact of the matter is that I have not seen one piece of legislation come out of Nashville this session that leads me to believe ANYONE in our legislature has one iota of common sense or intelligence.
So Democrats expose a racist and then Republicans respond by trying to expose, well, they don’t know what they are exposing until they finally discover the person who sent it was a Republican intern? DUMB ASSES!
Karen Camper, huh? This would be the same representative that is trying to kill a specialty license plate that would benefit disadvantaged children, wouldn’t it? Yes, I believe it is.
She is a politician that appears to place personal revenge and petty politics ahead of providing for the children that Democrats claim to care so much about. Somehow this seems fitting … pathetic, but fitting.
[...] yesterday morning conservatives brought to light another controversial email and argued Democrats would show their hypocrisy and do nothing. Conservative talk show host Steve [...]
[...] was learned yesterday that Democrats had an employee fired within 36 hours of a similar email incident, presumably under the same rules Republicans claim tied their hands and left them with a [...]
BFD! Find something important to do, like maybe, legislating.