This is absolutely disgusting:

The Republican Party of Virginia is strongly condemning an e-mail sent by Loudoun County’s GOP committee that shows President Obama as a zombie with part of his skull missing and a bullet through his head.

(Loudon County GOP)

“The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever,’’ said Pat Mullins, chairman of the state party. “The Republican Party of Virginia condemns the image and its use in the strongest possible terms.”

Even more disgusting is the Loudon GOP’s attempt at an apology:

Mark Sell, chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, issued a statement that said:

“The Loudoun County Republican Committee yesterday sent an email to its members that represented a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday,’’ Sell wrote. Apparently, some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the president as a victim of a violent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we deeply and sincerely apologize to the president and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left. The LCRC deplores any effort to display, suggest or promote violence against the president or any other political figure.”

The shorter version, “If you don’t have our sense of humor, screw you! “ Of course Mr. Sell is having a hard sell at that considering the Virginia state GOP and the Republican governor of the state have strongly condemned the image.

And now I know there are going to be the typical right wingers out there with their blanket response of “the left does it too”. I again ask for them to offer proof of this. I’m not talking about some random anti-war protestor holding images of Bush dead or something like that; I want actual proof of a county or state party official doing this. And to serve as a reminder to the right, here’s what happened under Bush:

Selina Jarvis is the chair of the social studies department at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, and she is not used to having the Secret Service question her or one of her students.

But that’s what happened on September 20.

Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights,” she says. One student “had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb’s down sign with his own hand next to the President’s picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster.”

According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent.

But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.

An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service.

This was far more innocent than what Loudon GOP did and a high school student faced questioning from the Secret Service for it.

The lack of violence in our political discourse is one of those things that separate us from a lot of third world nations. The right has been trying to erase that barrier ever since President Obama took office. It’s also been less than 10 months since Gabrielle Giffords was shot, yet the right still thinks that promoting violence against our leaders is a good idea. I just wonder how they would respond if some liberal sites or Democratic groups started a “kill the Republicans” campaign? I guarantee they would be calling for police investigations and the DOJ to get involved – guarantee it!