Hilarious.
National Republican leaders scrambled Thursday to control damage caused by an internal party document that caricatures President Obama as the Joker and stokes fear of socialism to raise money in a critical election year.
[...]
"You don't defend it," Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele said Thursday in an interview on Fox News. "It was unfortunate...inappropriate."
Sen. John Thune (S.D.), a member of the Republican leadership, said: "There is no place for this....
Said Tom Rath, a former RNC member from Concord, N.H.: "We're not going to win the election by drawing those kinds of comparisons...
Perhaps they're not defending it and perhaps they don't believe this is helpful, but I find it fascinating that Republicans are only condemning this when they get caught red-handed doing it, and when they fear it will hurt their precious fundraising (and also reinforce the Democrats' case that Republicans are the "Party of No"). More telling is the fact that, as the DNC points out, we didn't hear "Michael Steele condemning these things in August during the 'tea party' protests." And by "these things" we're talking about lunacy over "death panels," "Obama is a socialist," Obama as "The Joker," etc., etc. Back then, apparently it was all perfectly fine with Republicans. Now that it threatens their fundraising, it's not fine. Got it?
