DSCC Removes Link to Site Deemed Racist
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON – A national political committee charged with promoting Democratic candidates for Senate removed a link from its Web site yesterday after prodding from Republicans who said the linked site contained racist portrayals of a black lieutenant governor of Maryland who will run for Senate next year.
Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, who has weathered attacks from black political opponents and black college students for breaking with the solidly Democratic black community, has become a favorite target of a liberal New York blogger, Steve Gilliard.
Mr. Gilliard, who is black, posted a doctored photo of Mr. Steele in black face with the caption: “I’s Simple Sambo And I’s Running for the Big House.” More recently, he posted an image of Supreme Court Justice Thomas dressed as a lawn jockey.
Told about the site, state Democrats in Maryland condemned the altered photos as “distasteful, despicable, and degrading,” according to a Baltimore Sun article last week. A Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, pulled down an ad from Mr. Gilliard’s site, according to the same article, and an editorial in the Washington Times earlier this week decried the site for its “racially stereotyped slurs.”
As of yesterday, a link to Mr. Gilliard’s blog was still featured on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s site. When officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a statement yesterday calling attention to the site, the link was removed.
“It is despicable that the Democratic Senatorial Committee’s official Web page is linking to such an offensive site,” a spokesman for the NRSC, Dan Ronayne, said. “This is another outrageous affront to Lieutenant Governor Steele by the DSCC.”
Last month, a research director at the DSCC was fired for illegally obtaining Mr. Steele’s credit report. A spokesman for the DSCC, which is headed by Senator Schumer, of New York, did not return a call for comment.