NE State Board of Ed. member who ran racist and homophobic blog was cited for 3rd degree sexual assault on 17-year-old girl dressed as bird

Also: Blog racism bothers Dems, Gov. and World-Herald; homophobia not so much.

McPherson

     Pat McPherson, who was recently elected to a four-year term on the Nebraska State Board of Education, is in hot water for posts in his Objective Conservative blog, which referred several times to President Obama as a half-breed.
     So far, the state's just-elected Caucasian-obsessed GOP Governor (after being pushed) has called for McPherson's resignation, as has the UNL student newspaper (The Daily Nebraskan), the 28,000-member Nebraska State Education Association, the Omaha and Lincoln chapters of the NAACP and the state's Democratic Party.
     None of the above groups has objected to the blog's homophobic tenor, in which it referred to LGBTs as "queers and perverts"— only its racism.
     So far, the nation's largest and richest gay lobby group, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) also has been mute on the McPherson's blog's antigay smears, which include accusing LGBTs of achieving a "homosexualization" of the boy scouts.
     HRC has a field office in Nebraska, run by a Drew something or other. We saw nothing about this controversy or any calls by HRC for McPherson's resignation on either HRC's Nebraska web page or its Facebook page, but we did see a pink dog hoodie with an HRC logo for sale for $21.
    

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     In 2003 Pat McPherson was the Douglas County Election commissioner. After his birthday party, held in a Red Robin Gourmet Burgers restaurant in Omaha, McPherson was charged with fondling a 17-year-old girl dressed as a Turdus Migratorious.
     Tim O'Dell, the chairman of the Washington County GOP, said that charges filed against McPherson (disturbing the peace, 3rd degree sexual assault) and Chuck Sigerson, president of the Omaha City Council (disturbing the peace) were "ridiculous and outrageous" and that "we, at no time had any idea whether the mascot was a boy or a girl."
     Sigerson's disturbing-the-peace charge was for allegedly lifting the girl’s costume to expose her underwear. The Lincoln Journal-Star reported that "A mistrial was declared in his case after a jury failed to reach a verdict after deliberating for more than 10 hours over two days."
     As for McPherson, then-governor Mike Johanns asked for and received his resignation as Douglas County election commissioner.
     McPherson later beat the rap, then sued Red Robin for defamation. According to the Nebraska Democratic Party:

     McPherson admitted in a federal court lawsuit that he had made physical contact with the young female dressed as a mascot in the areas of her back, shoulder and abdomen, and tugged the mascot's tail While McPeherson was found not guilty of a crime his subsequent lawsuit against the Red Robin was thrown out of Court by a federal judge.
     The federal judge rejected McPherson's attempt to blame the young woman...
     McPherson's behavior did not meet the standards of former Governor and now U.S. Senator Mike Johanns. Parents, students and teachers should not have a Board member who does not meet the standards for an Election Commissioner. The last thing Nebraska needs is a Board member who blamed a teenager for the problems he caused for himself.

     McPherson also served as the chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party (Omaha), a post now held by Bryan Baumgart, who hasn't said anything about this hot GOP mess.
     What the current county GOP chairman IS talking about on Facebook is Omaha State Sen. Bob Krist not voting to end secret ballots for legislative leadership elections, a transgression for which Baumgart has posted a potential censure motion. The state GOP likes to keep an eye on who is actually towing the party line in Nebraska's officially "nonpartisan" Unicameral and secret ballots are the enemy of Republican control freaks transparent government.

Baumgart

    Eventually, Baumgart might also decide to censure his predecessor for holding Nebraska up to more national ridicule, as the RACIST NEBRASKA GOP BLOGGER / BOARD OF EDUCATION BIGOT story makes its rounds on the Internet, but no hurry, Bryan.
    In any case, as McPherson and Sigerson demonstrated, Republicans do have a way of posturing stiffly in public and partying affably in private.
     Take attorney and GOP stalwart John Chatelain, one of the contributors to McPherson's Objective Conservative blog. As a critic of LGBT rights laws and of current attempts by the Lincoln Public Schools to institute policies benefiting transgender kids, you'd think that Chatelaine would be a stick in the mud at parties.
     But as the video below reveals, you would be so... wrong...