Paulie Want a Cracker?

Via Wonk, who had a commenter who was on this story over a week ago, we have this from Politico:

A key organizer of John McCain’s meeting Saturday with former supporters of Hillary Clinton is best known for her role in another bitter American fight: The effort by some white descendants of Thomas Jefferson to keep his possible African-American descendants out of family gatherings.

Paula Abeles emailed Politico yesterday to complain that her group had gotten short shrift in a blog item, writing, “I initiated the teleconference with McCain on Saturday and was solely responsible for the guest list.” Another Clinton backer at the event, Will Bower, confirmed that she was “integral” to assembling the group.

But Abeles first made the news in 2003, when she and her husband, then-Monticello Association President Nat Abeles, led the fight to keep members of the Hemings family—descendants of Jefferson slave and, some historians believe, mistress Sally Hemmings [sic]—out of a gathering of the Monticello Association, which is made up of lineal descendants of the third president.

Abeles drew national attention for her role in an episode of online espionage.

The AP reported in May of 2003:

The wife of a Thomas Jefferson family association official said Friday that she masqueraded as a 67-year-old black woman on an Internet chat room in a bid to keep descendants of a reputed Jefferson mistress out of this weekend’s family reunion.

“It might have been somewhat unethical,” said Paulie Abeles of Washington, D.C., who participated for eight months in the Yahoo! message board created for relatives of Jefferson slave Sally Hemings.

“It might have been childish, but I really think I was working in the best interest of the majority of the family members to make the reunion a calm and civilized gathering,” she said.

Charming. I’d love to see some of those chat transcripts.

Kinda makes you wonder if all of those African Americans (or “AA’s,” as I’ve seen used a lot this primary season) you see turning up in waves on the anti-Obama blogs are the real deal, don’t it?

MORE: Here’s a copy of the WaPo article about the 2003 incident hosted, oddly enough, at the Monticello site.

Posted by Kevin K. on 06/16/08 at 01:53 PM • Permalink

Calm and civilized, huh? Reminds me of Bill O’s astonishment at not hearing patrons at a black-owned restaurant saying things like, “Yo, bring me some mo’ iced tea, muthafucka!” Idiots.

Incidentally, my own Cracker family reunions, which could be carved out of creamed cheese for the lack on melanin on display, are anything but calm and civilized. We should have terrorized the old Monticello Association shindigs with our uncouth, loutish presence; they would have begged the Hemmings to show up as reinforcements.

The wife of a Thomas Jefferson family association official said Friday that she masqueraded as a 67-year-old black woman on an Internet chat room

Well, yeah… but who doesn’t?

I’m actually masquerading as 14-year-old Malaysian girl who goes by the nickname of “Starburst” right this minute.

Hi!!!!!!!!  :):) (miles of smiles!!!! for u)

Maybe I should go on the McCain site and pretend I’m some rogue pharma rep from Purdue Pharma that’s been secretly keeping Cindy stocked up on her Oxy. 

I’m sure they’ve kept the Hemmings family away for totally unselfish reasons.