Republican Racism Review: Secret Plans, Ethnomasochists, and Confederate Flags

Real button handed out at the 2008
Texas Republican State Convention

If you start keeping your eyes open for them, there are a terrifying number of news stories about Republicans being racist:

• Everyone's favorite feudal baron Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a secret plan to keep Obama off the ballot.  So that's not crazy at all.

• Speaking of crazy Birthers, Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-AZ) thinks that doubts about Obama's birth certificate "may ultimately be right."  And Rep. Dave Schweikert may ultimately lose reelection for being an idiot.

• Remember Rick Perry's redistricting plan that'll reduce the voting power of half a million hispanics?  A Federal judge just released emails proving that Republican lawmakers intentionally tried to bypass DoJ review of their proposal to hide it's discriminatory intent.

• All around swell guy Pat Buchanan thinks that Obama's mother was an "ethnomasochist," which isn't just racist but really is a crime against the english language.

• Republicans have been quick to jump to Herman Cain's defense this week (more on that later), but I think my favorite has to be Ann Coulter, who thinks that it's a "high-tech lynching" and evidence that "our blacks are so much better than their blacks."

• You'd think that as the foster mother of 27 billion kids Michele Bachmann would have some sympathy for children.  You'd be wrong.

• Sometimes you can't win but for losing, as Rick Perry is finding out as he tries to navigate the murky waters of taking a position on the Confederate Flag.  I mean on the one hand, after his hunting cabin, Perry really doesn't need another racism story coming out right now.  But on the other, he's been supporting the Confederate Flag for years and risk alienating his racist base by flipping on the issue.  It's really tough to be a Republican.