A painting of the United States sinking into a toilet now on display in the cafeteria of the state Department of Justice has raised the ire of the state Republican Party, which is demanding that Attorney General Bill Lockyer remove the image.
It is extremely refreshing when a Democratic public official takes a stand and does not immediately bow down to Republican officials claiming to represent the majority of Americans.
"I don't know why we need to tolerate the cheap artwork of a gadfly with a world view that is so offensive to a majority of the people," said Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the California Republican Party.
Fortunately, GOP spokeswoman Hanretty didn't resort to invoking 9/11 in her attack of the artwork. That would have been more than a little ironic since one of the motivations that inspired attorney/artist Stephen Pearcy to create the painting was to confront the "'fanatical patriotism' following 9/11". The artwork was completed in 2003 before the emergence of the Koran abuse issues.
[Spokesman Nathan] Barankin said all the works in the exhibit would be on display until the show ends Aug. 31, a likely result since Lockyer, for most of his political career, has kept a representation of a man with a hand over his mouth on his office wall. Beneath the man are the words: "No Censorship."
Thus far, I haven't seen any quotes from Governor Arnold on the matter. (He was recently preoccupied with canceling inconvenient contracts with body building magazines.) It will be interesting to watch if the GOP will just let this one go or it they will try to make it into yet another case of how Democrats are weak on national security and not supporting our troops.
The full article is at sfgate.com.