Rand Paul's Spokesman, Christopher Hightower, Is Outed For Racist Past(?) By Blogs, Gets Fired By Campaign. We ALL Should Find This All Troubling.
Paul spokesman quits over Web remarks
By Joseph Gerth
The spokesman for U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul resigned Thursday after the campaign acknowledged that he maintained a page on a Web site that included racist remarks and suggested the government bore some responsibility for the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Christopher Hightower’s resignation came five hours after he told The Courier-Journal that he had never been a member of the Web site, myspace.com, and that none of the things attributed to him on the site were his.
But Paul campaign manager David Adams said later that he understood the myspace page was Hightower’s. He said Hightower resigned his paid campaign post during a meeting with Paul late in the day.
“Today the Rand Paul campaign became aware of some disturbing images on a social network site attributed to a campaign staffer,” a statement from the Paul campaign said in announcing Hightower’s resignation. “These images in no way represent Dr. Paul or his campaign nor do they represent the beliefs of this staff member. These images are reprehensible and have no place in civil discourse.”
Hightower, 37, who also was Paul’s campaign treasurer, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment after his resignation.
Paul’s campaign paid Hightower $10,000 for his work during the 3rd quarter of 2009, which ended Sept. 30.
The controversy could shake up the GOP race for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Jim Bunning, who is not seeking re-election. Paul, a Bowling Green ophthalmologist, has been picking up momentum in his race against Secretary of State Trey Grayson.
Paul leads in some polls and may lead in fundraising after an online fundraising event Wednesday that netted him $236,000.
Grayson said Thursday that Hightower positions are not out of step with the Paul campaign.
“The views and behavior displayed by Rand Paul’s communications director have no place in this campaign,” Grayson said in a statement. “I think Rand Paul’s judgment is seriously in question at this point. There seems to be a pattern of these kinds of disturbing views in his campaign.”
The allegations against Hightower first appeared Thursday on two Democratic blogs — Page One Kentucky and Barefoot and Progressive.
The page in question at myspace, a social networking site, used a derogatory word to refer to African Americans in a poem.
“I won't be your n-----. I won't be your slave,” the poem reads in part.
Adams declined comment on the poem.
The person who maintained the page also didn’t remove something posted by a friend around the time of Martin Luther King Day in 2008. It included a photo of a lynching and the words, “Happy N----- Day.”
In a statement, Paul’s campaign noted that the Internet posting with the lynching photo was not placed on the page by Hightower.
“I have never heard a single utterance of racism from this staffer, nor do I believe him to have any racist tendencies,” Paul said in the statement.
But he said the issue would be a distraction for the campaign.
The myspace page also included a copy of a letter to the editor that appeared in the Bowling Green Daily News in 2008 defending Rand Paul’s father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and arguing that it was the United States that invaded countries responsible for terrorist attacks — and not the other way around.
“My goodness, how soon some people forget we invaded them … do you not remember when we installed a foreign leader in Iran in the 1950s, do you not remember putting military bases in Saudi Arabia? Or, perhaps, you have forgotten the attack on Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, and the continued arming of Israel,” the letter said.
The newspaper confirmed that the letter ran on June 3, 2008, and was signed by a Christopher Hightower, of Auburn, Ky.
Adams said he hadn’t seen the letter but didn’t completely disavow Hightower’s words. “I think that’s a complicated situation, that there is truth on both sides,” he said.
He said Hightower’s words could be “taken out of context” and shouldn’t be seen as a justification for the events of Sept. 11.
The myspace page was taken down at about 11:30 a.m., several hours after the blogs linked Hightower to it.
Moments later, in an interview, Hightower denied ever having a myspace page and said he wasn’t responsible for taking the pages off the site.
“I’m not big on social networking,” Hightower said.
He confirmed that he lives in Auburn, Ky., but said he has never written a letter to any newspaper.
Hightower suggested that the page could have belonged to another Christopher Hightower. But he couldn’t explain why someone would have posted birthday wishes there on his birthday.
Hightower, a former vocalist for a heavy metal band, was one of Paul’s earliest staff members, sending out press releases for him two months before Paul formed an exploratory committee to consider running.
Adams said he didn’t know how Hightower and Paul met. “He came to encourage Rand to run for the Senate early and became part of the campaign,” he said.
Hightower attracted bloggers’ interest recently after he reacted approvingly to a video made by a Paul backer that used part of an old movie with a ranting Adolf Hitler as the basis for an anti-Grayson Internet ad.
It used English subtitles that suggested the Hitler character was actually Grayson.
By Joseph Gerth
The spokesman for U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul resigned Thursday after the campaign acknowledged that he maintained a page on a Web site that included racist remarks and suggested the government bore some responsibility for the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Christopher Hightower’s resignation came five hours after he told The Courier-Journal that he had never been a member of the Web site, myspace.com, and that none of the things attributed to him on the site were his.
But Paul campaign manager David Adams said later that he understood the myspace page was Hightower’s. He said Hightower resigned his paid campaign post during a meeting with Paul late in the day.
“Today the Rand Paul campaign became aware of some disturbing images on a social network site attributed to a campaign staffer,” a statement from the Paul campaign said in announcing Hightower’s resignation. “These images in no way represent Dr. Paul or his campaign nor do they represent the beliefs of this staff member. These images are reprehensible and have no place in civil discourse.”
Hightower, 37, who also was Paul’s campaign treasurer, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment after his resignation.
Paul’s campaign paid Hightower $10,000 for his work during the 3rd quarter of 2009, which ended Sept. 30.
The controversy could shake up the GOP race for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Jim Bunning, who is not seeking re-election. Paul, a Bowling Green ophthalmologist, has been picking up momentum in his race against Secretary of State Trey Grayson.
Paul leads in some polls and may lead in fundraising after an online fundraising event Wednesday that netted him $236,000.
Grayson said Thursday that Hightower positions are not out of step with the Paul campaign.
“The views and behavior displayed by Rand Paul’s communications director have no place in this campaign,” Grayson said in a statement. “I think Rand Paul’s judgment is seriously in question at this point. There seems to be a pattern of these kinds of disturbing views in his campaign.”
The allegations against Hightower first appeared Thursday on two Democratic blogs — Page One Kentucky and Barefoot and Progressive.
The page in question at myspace, a social networking site, used a derogatory word to refer to African Americans in a poem.
“I won't be your n-----. I won't be your slave,” the poem reads in part.
Adams declined comment on the poem.
The person who maintained the page also didn’t remove something posted by a friend around the time of Martin Luther King Day in 2008. It included a photo of a lynching and the words, “Happy N----- Day.”
In a statement, Paul’s campaign noted that the Internet posting with the lynching photo was not placed on the page by Hightower.
“I have never heard a single utterance of racism from this staffer, nor do I believe him to have any racist tendencies,” Paul said in the statement.
But he said the issue would be a distraction for the campaign.
The myspace page also included a copy of a letter to the editor that appeared in the Bowling Green Daily News in 2008 defending Rand Paul’s father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, and arguing that it was the United States that invaded countries responsible for terrorist attacks — and not the other way around.
“My goodness, how soon some people forget we invaded them … do you not remember when we installed a foreign leader in Iran in the 1950s, do you not remember putting military bases in Saudi Arabia? Or, perhaps, you have forgotten the attack on Iraq in the Persian Gulf War, and the continued arming of Israel,” the letter said.
The newspaper confirmed that the letter ran on June 3, 2008, and was signed by a Christopher Hightower, of Auburn, Ky.
Adams said he hadn’t seen the letter but didn’t completely disavow Hightower’s words. “I think that’s a complicated situation, that there is truth on both sides,” he said.
He said Hightower’s words could be “taken out of context” and shouldn’t be seen as a justification for the events of Sept. 11.
The myspace page was taken down at about 11:30 a.m., several hours after the blogs linked Hightower to it.
Moments later, in an interview, Hightower denied ever having a myspace page and said he wasn’t responsible for taking the pages off the site.
“I’m not big on social networking,” Hightower said.
He confirmed that he lives in Auburn, Ky., but said he has never written a letter to any newspaper.
Hightower suggested that the page could have belonged to another Christopher Hightower. But he couldn’t explain why someone would have posted birthday wishes there on his birthday.
Hightower, a former vocalist for a heavy metal band, was one of Paul’s earliest staff members, sending out press releases for him two months before Paul formed an exploratory committee to consider running.
Adams said he didn’t know how Hightower and Paul met. “He came to encourage Rand to run for the Senate early and became part of the campaign,” he said.
Hightower attracted bloggers’ interest recently after he reacted approvingly to a video made by a Paul backer that used part of an old movie with a ranting Adolf Hitler as the basis for an anti-Grayson Internet ad.
It used English subtitles that suggested the Hitler character was actually Grayson.
Labels: Kentucky politics, Race, Racism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:54 PM
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