A racist Republican.

This article is just another example of the media fueling the fire... we're keeping track of you hypocrits.

what can one say to the stunning immaturity of DePass and others of his ilk?

Both the comment and the non-apology are what I'd expect from a first-grader (albeit a first-grader in need of manners).

...You got a winger blaming everyone else but the ignorant racist liar.

Second letter - that's got to be some kind of record.

Comparing a black woman to an ape ... how could that possibly be offensive? It really is amazing how utterly tone deaf today's GOP can be.

You are an emabarassment to Ohio. Go watch some online porn or something to ease the tension of being undereducated, underemployed and undersexed.

... and learn how to spell.

The Republican Party sure seems to have more than its share of misogynistic jerks. When they disagree with the sitting Democratic president, they go after the wife. The first thing they attack is always her appearance. Just look at what they say about Hillary (and Nancy Pelosi too). Conversely, the level of vitriol never came close when Laura, Barbara or Nancy were First Ladies.

It ain't braggin if it's true.

Haven't they. The conservative republican implosion continues.

Once again, a politician resorts to the "If I offended anyone..." non-apology apology. Please correct the headline to reflect his double-downing on his original racist comment.

That's what he meant to say.

...when they can use it to put down a black woman or a Democrat. At all other times, creationism is their belief.

This to will pass as repuglicans continue to deny the racism that drives a very large segment of their base. You won't hear of this on FOX news or any of the major networks. It's a sad commentary on our society that a DHS report presenting well founded data that warns of a potential threat becomes a major story yet the continuous stream of hateful racist and homophobic rhetoric from the right goes virtually unreported.

No matter how careful these people are in public, in private (and this idiot thought Facebook was private, LOL), a true racist will out.

I lived in Florida for awhile, where the insurance company I worked for had a "special code" for blacks.

Of course black people have always been equated with monkeys in the South (and probably in the North, and certainly in Victorian England). That said, I was hoping that kind of thinking at least had disappeared. How naive I was!

It's not bad enough that he's insulted Michelle Obama, but she's a public figure and has been insulted plenty of times. What is telling is the absolute mean-spiritness behind what he's saying. And he's talking about all black people, because that's the way he thinks about all black people.

Then he had the nerve to say that it's all in jest, and to issue one of those famous Republican apologies ("I'm sorry if you were offended -- you sensitive sissy.").

I don't believe in being "politically correct." I do believe in at least trying to be kind.

The Republican Party is reaping the benefits of having purged all its moderates, and having recruited bottom-feeding mouth-breathers for the last 3-4 decades now. At one time, Repub office holders and spokespeople could harbor evil, bigoted, racist and generally hateful thoughts, yet be able to convey them to the baser part of their base in language sufficiently coded that mainstream Americans would not notice.

But at this point, the base is made up entirely of these boobs, and office holders and spokespeople seem to be no longer smart enough to know how to look respectable in public.

Manners - once the mainstay of the charming, yet bigoted racist Democrats of the traditional South - are no longer in style in Today's Republican Party. Maybe Senator Bubba never larned enny at his mammy's knee; maybe dittoheads now believe that only effete left and right coasters practice this kind of civilized social hypocrisy. There's some evidence, if you listen to talk radio, that civilization itself is an infringement on American freedoms and so must be opposed by Real Amurkins.

Salon and the rest of the media need to keep publicizing these awful faux pas - people seem to be starting to notice.

I went back and looked at your letters section and it appears you are the classic troll. You say one thing and then completely contradict that statement with your next post just to be offensive.

I know a lot of people like you, you cover up your insecurities about yourself with a lot of tough guy, asshole talk.

Without a computer, you'd have no life at all.

are hardly any smarter than the teenagers I teach, who simply think anything they put there is oh so private. That said, rude and crude is the "new face" of this group - hello boys, you lost, and apparently you were never taught any manners, either. Yep, he's just sorry he got caught, some apology.

what with his parents and cousins being all mixed up, but generally the vast majority of one's ancestors are no longer living.

The gorilla is Michelle's distant cousin, as it is mine, or yours. That includes De Pass.

Come to think of it, though, he might be more closely related to another branch of the evolutionary family tree. Slime molds, perhaps?

PS: "Rusty DePass?" WTF? Is that his porn name or something?

An both sides have now taken to a war of words against women, and it should stop.

Nothing can excuse this slur, but that doesn't mean we should engage in it either.

Somehow we've turned into a nation where Letterman thinks it's funny to call people slutty flight attendants and some moron politician thinks it's OK to compare the First lady to a Gorilla.

Not only is it childish, it shows some bizarre fascination with how women look, instead of who they are and what they do.

Women and far more than their physical appearance, but it seems a large percentage of people don't understand that.