Remember how we’ve had it drilled in our heads that when someone shares a picture on Facebook or Twitter, we need to be very careful before sharing it ourselves? Well, a Republican state representative from eastern North Carolina must have missed that memo. He got the bright idea to share a Facebook picture calling President Obama an “Islamic son of a b*tch.”
Michael Speciale has represented the third district in the North Carolina House, centered around New Bern, since 2013. This afternoon, The (Raleigh) News & Observer noticed that Speciale shared a picture on September 5 via the Facebook group “1 Million People to Defeat Barack Obama” on his personal Facebook page. The picture featured Obama alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was slamming Obama for his support of a two-state solution in Palestine.
The caption began:
“Listen, you Islamic son of a b*tch, unless you give all your land back to the native Indians, don’t pretend to lecture Israeli’s about our borders when you can’t control your own.”
The caption went on to say that Obama ought to take a lesson from Israel on how to deal with the Islamic State, and challenges the president to do something about them or let Israel take care of it. Sorry, but you lost me when you cursed out Obama.
A state legislator who shares something this disrespectful or childish about someone with whom he disagrees says a lot about himself–and it isn’t good. As little as I think about most of the Republican field, I would never stoop to something this disrespectful, or stoop to sharing conspiracy theory nonsense. Apparently Speciale finds it acceptable to do so.
Speciale is a tea partier from central casting. On his Website, he describes himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a patriot” who will not support any bill that he believes runs counter to the federal or state constitutions. On his campaign Facebook page, he describes himself as “a constitutional conservative.” But I also noticed that he served in the Marines for 22 years. He fell in love with eastern North Carolina while spending a lot of time at Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point, and settled there after he retired in 1995. Gee, you would think that spending two decades in the Marines would have taught Speciale respect for differing opinions. Apparently not.
I suspect that Speciale thinks he can get away with sharing this because he must think that, at least on paper, he has nothing to fear at the ballot box. After the Republicans took control of both houses of the General Assembly in 2010, they crafted one of the most aggressive gerrymanders in recent memory. According to Daily Kos’ excellent database of state legislative election data, Mitt Romney carried Speciale’s district by a punishing 59-39 margin. Seems to me like we have yet another argument for getting legislators out of the redistricting business.
Just because Speciale represents a district that, on paper, would elect a comatose Republican doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be held to account. Any elected official who shares something like this, regardless of how safe his district may be on paper, should have to answer for it. Thus far, Speciale hasn’t commented on it. Perhaps it’s time to force him on the record–in a civil manner, of course.
And maybe while we’re at it, we should ask state house speaker Tim Moore and majority leader Mike Hager what they think about a legislator who shares this kind of pigweed online. Email Speciale at Michael.Speciale at ncleg dot net, Moore at Tim.Moore at ncleg dot net, and Hager at Mike.Hager at ncleg dot net.
