Would It Be More Appropriate To Introduce Don Yelton As "Mr. Republican" Or "Mr. Conservative?"

Thursday Rachel Maddow focussed on the Daily Show to make the same point Alan Grayson made when he pointed out that teabaggers are basically a modern-day version of the KKK. I wonder if Claire McCaskill, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Joe Crowley will condemn Rachel the way they condemned Grayson. In any case, you need to watch this segment. It's amazing, although keep in mind that Don Yelton is now calling the North Carolina Republican Party gutless for forcing him to resign yesterday.

The star of the segment, Yelton, wasn't the point for Maddow. She was attempting to show Republican hypocrisy when it comes to racism and immigration reform. Yelton, however, was fired from his job as a Buncombe County Republican Party precinct chairman. Having his views are practically de rigueur for anyone who wants to climb the GOP Leadership ladder anywhere in the Old Confederacy. But saying them aloud on a national television show? Not so much. WRAL:

In a segment that aired Wednesday night, Yelton blasted "lazy black people that wants the government to give them everything," one of a slew of racially inflammatory comments he made in the interview.

[Buncombe GOP Chairman Henry] Mitchell called the remarks "offensive, uniformed and unacceptable of any member within the Republican Party."

"Let me make it very clear, Mr. Yelton's comments do not reflect the belief or feelings of Buncombe Republicans, nor do they mirror any core principle that our party is founded upon," Mitchell said in a press release. "This mentality will not be supported or propagated within our party."

According to the release, this isn't the first time Yelton has clashed with local party leadership.

"Yelton was recently reprimanded and removed from his position as a precinct chair in Buncombe County for a period of time in 2012 through 2013 and was then re-elected to precinct chair by two votes (his wife and himself) at the 2013 convention, placing him back on the Buncombe County Executive Committee," said the statement, which also noted that Yelton neither sought nor got approval to speak on behalf of the GOP.

The state party leadership also issued a statement calling for Yelton's resignation.

Yelton told the Asheville media on Thursday that he stands by his comments.

"I've been laughed at by Democrats since I left the party. They try to make me look like a fool," he told WLOS-TV. "This is being picked up in Raleigh, across the state. They're trying to say, 'Look at this guy. He's racist.' The whole question isn't about racism."

They weren't aware that Yelton, an environmental sciences teacher, is widely known as "the Rush Limbaugh of western North Carolina?" And, like Yelton, most Republicans agree that it's never about racism. It's telling, though, that while conservatives inside the Democratic Party like Wasserman Schultz, a New Dem, Crowley, arguably the most corrupt Wall Street whore in Congress, and the pathetic McCaskill, decided to try to elevate themselves among racists-types, the highest-ranking African-American in the House, Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-SC) came to Grayson's defense: “I have my own opinion about people who call themselves Tea Partiers. I see the mail that comes into my office. Nobody writes about that, but I get mail in my office and I know how racist a lot of that mail is." Wasserman Schultz, Crowley and McCaskill should read this simple look at the ties that bind the Tea Party and the KKK and then apologize to Grayson-- and their own African-American constituents.

GOP leadership team visits the White House. Pete Sessions (between Cantor and Boehner) to the President of the United States of America: "I cannot even stand to look at you." Boehner and Cantor didn't say a word.

KKK? No KKK connections here. Why even ask?

If you'd like to help Alan Grayson win reelection, you can contribute to his campaign here.





UPDATE: And, Yes, Yelton Used To Be A "Democrat"

And we all know what kind of Democrat. From our friend Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell: "Don Yelton represents the rump-end of the Democrat turned Republican party here in North Carolina. When he complains that the Democrats ran things here for more than a century, he's avoiding the true story. The Dems that ran NC until recent decades were the Dems who forged Jim Crow laws, who were racist and misogynist. Most of those former Dems bolted the party following the Goldwater and particularly the Nixon 'southern strategies'. Yelton was a Democratic Party candidate a decade ago and was late to leave to join the racist NCGOP. Anyone who parades the idea that the Democratic Party ran this state for the 20th century is conveniently forgetting that the surviving Dems from that era are all now registered Republicans."