Andy Parrish, a former campaign director and chief of staff for Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann--most recently featured in Bluestem's May 31, 2014 post, Tweet clash: GOP operative Andy Parrish calls delegate obscene cream puff before slapping him--tweeted a "Mexifornia" drivers license that gained the approval of white supremacists in a Stormfront forum as early as 2003.
Today is Minnesota's primary; four Republicans are vying to be their party's gubernatorial choice.
In fact, Parrish tweeted the "joke" twice, the first to troll Star Tribune political reporter Rachel Stassen Berger:
@RachelSB Even though I didn't need it I brought my ID just in case. pic.twitter.com/IVeyonV0xT
— Andy Parrish (@andyparrish) August 12, 2014
The tweet, which incorporates a photo of Mexican character actor Alfonso Bedoya in his famous role as Gold Hat in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre comes a day after MNGOP Deputy Chair's callous tweet at grief for Robin Williams' passing draws online heat, a story first reported on Bluestem.
The trolling is not likely to do the image of the Republican Party of Minnesota and its activists much good on primary election day.
Though from an individual operative's tweet, it's likely that the image will draw the same sort of criticism that Minnesota Majority faced when it used this image online during its push to get the Voter ID Amendment on the ballot:
Tim Pugmire reported in Racism alleged in voter ID campaign:
The debate over a proposed voter ID constitutional amendment took a new twist today when opponents accused supporters of using racial imagery to push their agenda.
TakeAction Minnesota and other anti-amendment groups accused the pro-amendment group Minnesota Majority of using its web site for “race baiting.” Minnesota Majority is leading the effort to require citizens to show a photo identification in order to vote. An image on the group’s website shows people lined up at a voting booth, including three in what appear to be Halloween costumes, along with an African-American man dressed in a striped prison uniform and another person in a mariachi costume. During a news conference, state Rep. Rita Rena Moran, DFL-St. Paul, said she was sickened by what she views as racial stereotypes.
“They presume to call out certain groups of voting constituencies — African Americans, Latinos in particular — and compare them to the fearful characters of Halloween,” Moran said. “This is wrong.”
But Dan McGrath, executive director of Minnesota Majority, rejected the claims as “ridiculous.” He said the images are a political cartoon, and he described it as “coincidental” that the felon attempting to vote is an African American. McGrath explained the person in the mariachi costume is “supposed to be an illegal immigrant, and it’s kind of difficult to convey that.”
While the Republican controlled legislature was able to get the measure on the ballot, Minnesota voters voted it down, and his amendemnt, along with the Republican-sponsored marriage discrimination amendment (Parrish worked on that campaign), are thought to have delivered the Minnesota legislature into Democratic control of both chambers in the 2012 elections.
We'll post reactions from twitter and Facebook as this story develops.
Update: Andy Parrish has apologized without addressing what offended people:
clearly my fake ID tweet offended people for that I am sorry - my intent was to be sarcastic abt MN voting laws w/ an obvious fake ID.
— Andy Parrish (@andyparrish) August 12, 2014
Not that the twitterati are buying it:
.@andyparrish No, you knew exactly what you were doing. Claiming ignorance and saying "sorry" doesn't cut it, douchebag.
— jacobob (@jacobob) August 12, 2014
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