Canyon County (ID) Commissioner Apologizes for Obama Email

KIVI-TV ^ | 11 Dec 2008 | Unattributed

[GOP_Raider]

CALDWELL, IDAHO --

Canyon County Commissioner Steve Rule is receiving criticizing for sending an email comparing Michelle Obama to a black widow spider.

Jill Karaitis of New West.net broke the story after receiving the email from an anonymous source. She calls the email racist and outrageous.

"It's a typical racist email disguised as humor. But it's not funny," Karaitis told Today's Channel 6 News.

[classified]

That is a beautiful site

[GOP_Raider]

It’s one advantage to living in a very picturesque state. :)

[Ditter]

Good one, I had not thought of the Black Widow spider comparison. All I could think of was the time I had a flash fire of hot grease in my frying pan. I think I heard a few compliments from media babes talking about the black and red number. My only word was peeeeuuu!

[MilspecRob]

Just so people know what we are talking about the apology.

The email shows a picture of a black widow spider. It reads "She's very easy to spot. The female has a very wide backside, is Black, and has a red hour glass shaped marking on her body."

Then it goes on to say "You can find this spider in closets, wood piles, under beds, and soon...the White House!!!!!!"

Following the comments is a picture of Michelle Obama from election night, wearing a black and red dress. Rule, a Republican, forwarded the email to about 25 friends using his official government account. Karaitis says he sent it to several county email addresses.

We asked the commissioner to speak with us on camera, but he refused. Instead he sent out this statement: "I found the red markings on the dress shown in the email very similar to that of a black widow spider, and that made it humorous to me. If I offended anyone, I sincerely apologize and all concerned parties can be assured I will not use a county computer to forward emails that are not directly related to county business." -- Steve Rule.

[Dallas59]

True. I wonder if he would still have gotten in hot water if the same lib writer had found out about the email being sent from his home? My guess is yes.

[Hanna548]

Good grief, the first thing I said when I saw Michelle walk out onto the state election eve was that she looked like a black widow spider in that gosh awful dress. Good grief are we s e n s i t i v e or what??

[TXnMA]

I had just shown our granddaughters a black widow spider in a stump hole -- to teach them to recognize them and to avoid places where the spiders hide.

As soon as Michelle walked onto that stage, they shouted, "Look! A Black Widow!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the mouths of babes...

[fr_freak]

"It's a typical racist email disguised as humor. But it's not funny," Karaitis told Today's Channel 6 News.

So this dumb beyotch gets to decide now what is and is not funny? We all have to check in with her first before making a joke?

[Hanna548]

That is hilarious:) Gotta love the little ones:)

[Delphinium]

Can anyone send me that email?

I want to forward it to my whole list.