On Friday, the news broke that former Tennessee GOP leader Chip Saltsman, who ran Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign, had distributed a CD to Republican National Committee members for Christmas featuring a song called "Barack the Magic Negro."
Saltsman hopes to become RNC chairman. The current chair, Robert M. "Mike" Duncan, who is seeking another term, said he was "shocked and appalled" by the decision to send the CD, which also included songs like "Love Client #9" and "Down on the Farm with Al Gore."
"Barack the Magic Negro" is a parody set to the music of "Puff The Magic Dragon" and sung by an Al Sharpton imitator; it references a Los Angeles Times column of the same name.
"Yeah the guy from the LA paper said [Obama] made guilty whites feel good," the Sharpton-imitator sings on the track, which aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. "They'll vote for him and not for me 'cause he's not from the hood."
You can hear the whole thing here.
Saltsman has defended his decision to send the CD, releasing a statement saying that "our party leaders should...refuse to pander to [the media's] desire for scandal."
And former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell – who is black, as well as perhaps the leading contender for the RNC position – has come to Saltsman's defense, knocking "hypersensitivity in the press regarding matters of race."
"When looked at in the proper context, these concerns are minimal," he said. "All of my competitors for this leadership post are fine people."
This morning, however, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, who has reportedly been mulling a run for the RNC chair, released a statement supporting candidates for the chairmanship who have taken a "firm position" on Saltsman's decision to distribute the "racially-insulting song":
“As the GOP Chairman in one of our nation’s most ethnically and culturally diverse states, I am especially disappointed by the inappropriate words and actions we’ve seen over the past few days," he said. "I am proud of those party leaders who have stood up in firm opposition to this type of behavior."
"Actions such as the distribution of this CD, regardless of intent, only serves to promote divisiveness and distracts us from our common goal of building our party," added Greer.
Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis, who is also seeking the top GOP post, has criticized Saltsman as well.
"In my opinion, this isn't funny and its in bad taste," he said. "Just as important, anything that paints the GOP as being motivated in our criticism of President-elect Obama by anything other than a difference in philosophy does a disservice to our party."
he U.S. Treasury is expected to transfer $9.3 billion to General Motors and $4 billion to Chrysler, but Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Economy.com, predicts that over the next few years taxpayers will pay a total of $75-$125 billion to keep the Big Three out of bankruptcy.
"The bailout will likely cost $100 billion or more before we're through," University of Maryland economist Peter Morici told ABC News, adding that much of that money, technically loans, might never be paid back.
The automakers are stalled in launching the restructuring the Bush administration wants. G.M. has put off negotiations with creditors until Jan. 5. And the United Auto Workers Union doesn't want to go along with the wage and benefit cuts the bailout agreement calls for, in hopes that the Obama administration will drop a target in the bailout that calls for the Big Three to make wages competitive with transplanted Japanese carmakers operating in southern states. The initial installment of funds is not expected to carry GM past February.
Analysts say it's not a question of whether they'll be back to ask for more money -- but when.
"Given the depressed state of the auto market, General Motors and Chrysler will certainly be back again for more aid," Morici said. "It's just a matter of time."
With more than a million jobs at stake, economists say Congress, the Bush administration and later the Obama administration will likely do what new car buyers do: complain about the price, and then pay it.
But first, Congress would have to overcome a bad case of bailout fatigue after the first half of the $700 billion financial industry rescue, as Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday.
Essential work in the Bay Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project will not go forward today while a Port of Oakland labor dispute is negotiated, according to the California Department of Transportation.
A ship carrying steel supports for the project has remained unloaded at Pier 7 since its arrival in Oakland on Friday, Caltrans reported.
Members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union blocked the unloading work at about 5 p.m. Friday, protesting that Caltrans and its construction partner, American Bridge Fluor Enterprises, awarded the job to other port workers in violation of longshoremen rights, a union member said.
Caltrans, ABF and ILWU representatives are scheduled to meet for negotiations today, while work to unload the steel at Pier 7 is indefinitely postponed, according to Caltrans.
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