I imagine that if a prominent Democratic politician or liberal organization had called Laura Bush a Gorilla or even some lesser slur that didn't involve Laura's race but merely called her honesty into question, the outrage meter from the right wing media machine (Fox News, Limbaugh, etc.) would have demanded said Democratic politician/liberal organization to be officially censored by Congress. I don't expect the offensive racist remarks of South Carolina GOP activist Rusty DePass to receive such high levels of condemnation from Congress or our so-called "liberal" media, however, despite the fact that his apology for a clear racial slur against the First Lady was half-hearted, at best:

Commenting on a report posted to Facebook about a gorilla escape at a zoo in Columbia, S.C., Friday, longtime GOP activist Rusty DePass wrote, "I'm sure it's just one of Michelle's ancestors - probably harmless." Busted by South Carolina political blogger Will Folks, DePass told WIS-TV in Columbia, "I am as sorry as I can be if I offended anyone. The comment was clearly in jest."

Then he added, "The comment was hers, not mine," claiming Michelle Obama made a recent remark about humans descending from apes. The Daily News could find no such comment.

I like that. Shorter Rusty DePass: Hey it was a Joke. And it's her fault, anyway. Can't wait to hear all the condemnation from the right wing blogs and talk show hosts about this. So far? Michelle Malkin? Crickets. Confederate Yankee? Crickets. Hot Air? Crickets. Fox News.com? Crickets. The NRO's Corner? Crickets. Instapundit? Crickets. Power Line? Crickets. Althouse? Crickets. You get the idea. But Letterman insult Sarah Palin? Blogstorm! But hey at least Free Republic had a post up about this. Here's a few comments from their thread on this story:

“Sorry for comparing Michelle Obama to gorilla.”

He apologizes to all gorillas of the world. 6 posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 1:17:48 AM by Markos33

Was the gorilla insulted?

12 posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 1:53:56 AM by dalereed

She looks more like a howler monkey to me.

14 posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 2:02:09 AM by Mr Ramsbotham

Spare me. She looks much more like one of those mandrlls with the blue and red butts anyway.

When will these chickenshits stop apologizing to the PC police?

31 posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 5:26:59 AM by MGMSwordsman

I was thinking a shelf ass baboon

34 posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 6:51:06 AM by Joe Boucher

She wishes she were human. What an UGLY woman!

35 posted on Monday, June 15, 2009 7:21:51 AM by Paige

And here's the photo shopped image* of her sitting next to Palin Carla Bruni Sarkozy two of them posted there:

As rikyrah at Mirror on America stated in commenting on this story:

they are who we thought they were. Plain and simple.

Yes they are. Nasty, racist, hateful, dangerous idiots. And because our media lets them get away with it, they grow more emboldened by the day. And don't tell me this has nothing to do with the increasing violence and threats of violence against liberals, minorities, gays, etc. This is precisely the dehumanizing, demonizing speech which creates a climate which encourages the fringe elements of the right wing to take matters into their own hands, literally by pulling the triggers of guns aimed at people they have been told are subhuman, unworthy of their respect. The implicit message, the subtext of all this ugly language being thrown around by the representatives of the Republican Party and the conservative movement is that rage, hatred and yes, even violence, is an acceptable tactic to employ to fight back against Democrats, and especially President Obama and his supporters.

I remember a time when The Republican Senate Majority Leader was forced to resign for his comments praising Strom Thurmond's run for President as a Dixiecrat. I guess Republicans and conservatives feel less shame now that they are out of power and a Black Man is President. Now it's anything goes. They call him a Marxist. A Muslim. A Terrorist. A Fascist. A Dictator. A man out to destroy America. A man who isn't a real American, who wasn't born in America. Who wants to take away all your Guns. The Anti-Christ in brown colored flesh.

And now his beautiful wife's a gorilla. A reference with a long history in America as a means to identify African Americans less than fully human:

Six studies under the title “Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization, and Contemporary Consequences” were published in last February’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Among the relevant findings:

Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes.

And …

After having established that individuals mentally associate Blacks and apes, Study 4 demonstrated that this implicit association is not due to personalized, implicit attitudes and can operate beneath conscious awareness. In Study 5, we demonstrated that, even controlling for implicit anti-Black prejudice, the implicit association between Blacks and apes can lead to greater endorsement of violence against a Black suspect than against a White suspect. Finally, in Study 6, we demonstrated that subtle media representations of Blacks as apelike are associated with jury decisions to execute Black defendants.

Aren't Republicans such charming, courteous, civil people?

* Original photo can be seen here at Yahoo. Hat tip to ILuvChez17.