GOP creates rulebook to keep its candidates from being racist pinheads in front of people

The GOP, stocked to the gills with candidates like George Allen – who never met a non-white person he didn’t want to smugly race-bait in front of his own supporters – has taken the bull by the horns and created a rulebook that they hope will keep their candidates in line.

GOP issues rules to avoid Macaca moments

The Macaca moment has morphed into an official learning tool for the Republican establishment.

It’s right there, on pages 18 and 22 of an Internet guide from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee that its chairman, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), hopes will become scripture for the 2008 candidates.

Always assume you’re being recorded, and always record your opponent. The blogs — oh, scratch that — the Republican blogs are your friends, so use them for rapid response in good times and bad.

“The paradigmatic example of failure to do so is the ‘macaca’ moment,” reads the guidebook (excerpted here), referring to a remark last year by former Sen. George Allen.

The GOP, which realized there was an Internet in Nov. 2006, realizes they have hard work ahead of them in upcoming elections. In years past, GOP candidates always felt free to be as racist and misogynistic as they felt, much to the delight of their base.

While GOP leadership doesn’t actually mind if their candidates single out the only dark person around and repeatedly call him a monkey, they realize that the Internet exists, and that people outside their elite cadre of pals could notice, thus hurting their rigged-election hopes, and dashing their dreams of a one-party theocracy.

So remember, GOP candidates: Try not to be a jerk, work with the right-wing blogs, and look both ways before hurling racial epitaphs. Somebody could be watching.

–WKW