The Tennessee Democratic Party has called on Sen. Diane Black (R-Gallatin) and Senate Republican leaders to fire an aid who admitted to sending a racist email to fellow Republicans.

Sherri Goforth, a legislative aid to Republican Senate Caucus Chair Sen. Black, sent the email on May 28 to a short list of colleagues. The email displayed a montage of the official portraits of the Presidents of the United States with President Barack Obama as a pair of white eyes against a black background.

“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 email 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 House Republican Caucus.”

Sen. Black told several reporters yesterday that she will not tolerate communications of this sort coming from her office. When asked what she plans to do about it, Sen. Black said Goforth received a written reprimand and that’s all that will happen. Sen. Black reminded the media that Goforth is a 20 year state employee with no prior disciplinary record.

The Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislatures expressed disappointment in a Tennessean and highlighted the bad light such actions shed on the legislative body.

“It’s unfortunate, and it’s another in a series of unfortunate incidents that have happened across this country with this president,” he said. “It sends the wrong message from the state of Tennessee, and it sends the wrong message from the House and Senate. I wish it hadn’t happened.”

This story was broke by well-known West Tennessee blog Newscoma. Since it broke yesterday, the story has appeared on several national blogs and mainstream national media outlets, including CNN. It is yet another political embarrassment for the state of Tennessee from state Republicans in the past few months.

Sen. Black will appear on CNN at 1:30 p.m. CT to discuss her staffer’s racist email.

Here is a quick look at subsequent posts from blogs across the state:

Nathan Moore:

1. If my staffer did this, I would have fired her without discussion. Period. Verbal reprimands are for forgetting to send out the mail.

Chris Brogan:

This is 2009. I don’t care that she has a 20 year work record. I don’t care about any of the details. We condone racism? So says the US Senate with that action. That’s all I want to say. I’m floored.

Lean left:

There’s no telling what passes between these people on the days when they don’t get caught. And even when they are caught red-handed, they deny, obfuscate, and lie. This is not an aberration - this is what the right wing is like when they think no one is watching them.But why such an upsurge of stupidity, racism, anger, and violence, right now?

Ilissa Gold:

So let this be a cautionary tale to any political campaigners or staffers.  The story went live at 10, went statewide by 11, went national by 3:30, and was EVERYWHERE (except for Post Politics) by 4:30.  So in the span of about six to six and a half hours, everyone knows just how much racism exists within the TNGOP.  And all because a staffer just had to hit the “forward” button.

Southern Beale:

I think it’s abundantly clear that the Republican Party has a race problem. As someone who lives in the South, these kinds of things reflect very poorly on the region. If I were an international corporation looking for a new U.S. headquarters, why would I choose a place that seems to be going out of its way to portray itself as an intolerant backwater?

Liberadio:

Who is on the “right list,” indeed. We’re looking forward to a response from Senator Black’s office. And considering the national news has picked up on the story, not sure if the “if we ignore it, it will go away” strategy will work for much longer.

Sumner County Democrats:

And lastly, how will Senator Black’s constituents, yes even those of color, even those of another political affiliation, know that their concerns are being heard when the very gate-keeper of their Senator’s office finds a picture of the President of the United States represented as a “spook” to be so humorous that it should be forwarded by email to her colleagues and associates?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 9:21 am and is filed under Blogs, Politics, Republicans, TV, Tennessee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.