Is this incitement? That’s a question you’d never want to have to answer to, especially if you’re involved in politics.
But that’s the question the Republican Party of Virginia woke up to on Tuesday morning after one of its branches—Loudoun County’s GOP Committee—sent an e-mail titled “Halloween 2011” featuring images of President Obama with a bullet through his head, a horrific caricature of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and a parade of entranced Obama supporters.
The e-mail invited local Republicans to a party sponsored by the committee and, according to a statement released by county GOP Chairman Mark Sell, it was intended to be “a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday.”
But the picture was posted to the blog Too Conservative and had turned viral by Tuesday morning.
Pat Mullins, chairman of Virginia’s Republican Party, told The Washington Post, “The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever," adding that “the Republican Party of Virginia condemns the image and its use in the strongest possible terms.”
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