News and Articles

WASHINGTON (AP) - The chairman of the Republican National Committee on Saturday scolding one of his potential successors circulated among members for a CD that included a song entitled "Barack the black magic."

Chip Saltsman, who aspires to the post, sent committee members a CD of 41 tracks on the right-wing comedian Paul Shanklin, which includes the controversial song about the president-elect Barack Obama.

"The elections of 2008 were a wake-up call for Republicans to attract more people to our party," said the president of NBC, Robert M. "Mike" Duncan, said in a statement. "I am outraged and dismayed that anyone thinks that this is appropriate since it obviously does not lead us in the right direction."

The song originated in the radio program's wing commentator Rush Limbaugh, alluding to an opinion column in the newspaper Los Angeles Times by David Ehrenstein, entitled "Obama the 'Black Magic'" (Obama, the black magic). Ehrenstein argues that by voting for Obama, whites relieve their feelings of guilt for the evils of racism.

The parody takes the music of "Puff, The Magic Dragon", a popular nursery rhyme.

"Paul Shanklin is an old friend and I think that members of the NBC have enough sense of humor and wisdom to recognize that their songs for the program of Rush Limbaugh parodies policies are happy," said Saltsman to The Hill, a newspaper in Washington that published a note on the CD on Friday.

Saltsman led the presidential campaign of former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee.