One day after the chair of the Loudoun County Republican committee defended the use of an image portraying President Obama as a zombie with a gunshot wound in his forehead, the official who designed the email has resigned:
The Loudoun County Republican Committee’s communications director, Robert Jesionowski, took full responsibility for the email, which was used to promote Republican activities at a Halloween parade.
“I will not excuse my missing the connotation of the zombie pic of the president,” Jesionowski wrote to LCRC Chairman Mark Sell. “(Found it online, very late, while I was hastily putting the Halloween email together.) This was in bad taste, does not reflect my own principles nor those of any political activist or candidate I know in either party, and if I had reflected a little longer I would have caught it. A different pic ought to have gone out.”
As abhorrent as this image & its use was, I respect the genuine regret evident in Jesionowski’s resignation. But I wish the head of the County Republican Committee shared his shame. Mark Sell has said he had no problem with the email, calling it “a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday,” which I take to mean even if it was fully vetted, it would’ve gone out as-is. If that’s the case, why did Sell accept Jesionowski’s resignation? Does Sell now realize the email was wrong, and if so will he finally say so publicly? Or is Mark Sell hoping that by letting a lower-level official throw himself on his sword, Sell himself will escape any consequences whatsoever?
