Is this what
desperation smells like?
J. Patrick Rooney, aka Whitey McWhiteguy, is putting up $30,000 to fund a group called People of Color United that's running anti-Kerry ads on black radio stations. Here's a picture of the not-very-black insurance magnate himself in case for some reason, you thought maybe the major donor to People of Color United was a person of color. The ads themselves are real cute:
One of the radio ads addresses Kerry's failure to vote on a bill to extend unemployment benefits for 13 weeks: "It needed 60 votes to pass. Ninety-nine out of 100 senators voted -- Kerry did not! It lost by one vote! Maybe Kerry thought the more of us who are unemployed and hurting, the more likely we would vote Democrat."
Another ad attacks Teresa Heinz Kerry, who, at the Democratic convention last month cited her birth and upbringing in Mozambique and who has described herself as African American. In the radio commercial, the announcer says: "His wife says she's an African American. While technically true, I don't believe a white woman, raised in Africa, surrounded by servants, qualifies."
The money quote comes, not surprisingly, from the Money Man himself, Mr. Rooney:
Rooney, who is white, said in an e-mail response to an inquiry from The Washington Post: "I support [the] group because the genuine word from the black community should be heard, not white folks saying for them."
Right on.