Back To Last Week’s Dead Horse

Before anyone accuses us of “beating a dead horse” again, we’d like to point out that we’re simply drawing attention today to a national column, one that – in part, at least – focuses on the overreaction of the media to the saga of SCGOP activist Rusty DePass.

Who again?

Exactly … in case you’ve already forgotten, DePass is the former state official who found himself in the middle of a national firestorm ten days ago when he compared First Lady Michelle Obama to a gorilla that escaped from a South Carolina zoo.

Now, “Rusty Gate” is the subject of a column by our all-time favorite nationally-syndicated “girl crush,” Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers’ Group.

Here’s an excerpt from Parker’s cleverly-titled spread, “South Carolinians Gone Ape …”

DePass, a former chairman of the state Elections Commission, has all but performed the Stations of the Cross in apologizing for his remark the past several days. Originally made on his Facebook page in what he thought was a private exchange with a friend, the comment was picked up by a local political blogger, Will Folks (former communications director for Gov. Mark Sanford), who posted it on his Web site, FITSNews.com.

Quicker’n you can say “cheese grits,” the comment went viral. And DePass — who is neither a public official nor, officially, a spokesman for the GOP — has lost his commercial real estate job and been roundly chastised in a series of public condemnations.

Thus far, he has apologized twice, including Wednesday at a news conference called by the state NAACP. Democratic members of the South Carolina House of Representatives twice tried to pass a resolution expressing regret to the first lady, but were defeated by the Republican majority. More than 400 people have joined a Facebook Group called “Rusty DePass is an insufferable piece of garbage.”

Has DePass been sufficiently punished yet? Even Folks, who broke the story, says reaction has been excessive:

“What he said was over the line, but the response to it has also been over the line. There’s no way someone in the private sector should get bullied out of their job for a comment like that. We have to balance respect for all races and cultures, which is an essential ingredient to the kind of society we want to be, but there has to be some semblance of proportion.”

True that.

According to Parker, DePass’ now-infamous comment is “part of an ugly subterranean culture of entrenched racism” that exists in South Carolina and other Southern states, but she also notes that in this case it “clearly wasn’t intended to do harm.”

What else does Parker have to say about South Carolina (where she’s lived for twenty years, incidentally)?

Find out for yourself by clicking here …