Puppy-Lover Steele Pretends Not to Notice Hardcore Racist Campaign Tactics

[PHOTO MISSING]

Lt. Gov. Michael Steele smiles as he watches primary election returns Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006, in Greenbelt, Md. Steele won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Maryland. (AP Photo/Matt Houston)

Ah yes, who could have predicted this? While Steele is winking, adjusting his Prada suit and cuddling Boston Terriers in his ads, his minions are waging one of the most shameless, over-the-top, racialicious campaigns in recent memory. From this morning's Washington Post:

The push was evident in a Baltimore radio advertisement targeting African American listeners that was sponsored by the Washington-based National Black Republican Association. The ad identifies Martin Luther King Jr. as a Republican and pins the founding of the Ku Klux Klan on Democrats.

One woman says: "Democrats passed those black codes and Jim Crow laws. Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan."

"The Klan?" her friend replies. "White hoods and sheets?"

First woman: "Democrats fought all civil rights legislation from the 1860s to the 1960s. Democrats released those vicious dogs and fire hoses on blacks."

Second woman: "Seriously?"

The ad says that "Democrats want to keep us poor while voting ONLY Democrat" and, "Democrats have bamboozled blacks."

Nope, not shameless at all. And what does Steele think about all this?

Steele said he had not heard the 60-second spot but said he generally does not oppose Republican efforts to assert their "real place in history."

Uh... recent history or ancient history? Better go back to cuddling puppies, Michael.