Does Sex Sell for Chicago Republicans?

By Kevin Robinson in News on Apr 8, 2010 2:00PM

A tempest in a teapot boiled over yesterday on Windy Citizen, when a website that looks deceptively like the official page of the Chicago GOP featured a not safe for work (and not safe for people that enjoy literate English) post at the top of the site which included a topless woman for no apparent reason. (We warned you - you can click here if you want to, ahem, read the post.).

To be clear, the website is not the official website of the Chicago GOP; ChicagoGOP.com acted as the party's official site until late last year, when the local party migrated their online activities over to ChicagoRepublicanParty.com. According to Chicago Current, though it's owned by GOP Media, a local consultancy run by Tom Swiss, who is the local party's political director. The post, which uses John Edwards's mistress as a touchstone to critique the way that some women capitalize on their sexual conquests, and the Windy Citizen speculation it fueled, had Swiss denouncing "political correctness" to Chicago Current. "In my opinion, it takes political correctness to an extreme edge and doesn't make any sense" to criticize the site, Swiss told the Current. "A lot of people (say), 'Oh, a woman's naked breast.' That's just absurd."

Aside from leaving visitors upset (as evidenced by the comments on Swiss's site) and people scratching their heads over at WindyCitizen, ChicagoGOP.com also temporarily fooled Rich Miller at the Capitol Fax Blog, who noted that "Hey, I’m no prude, but I do wonder what “family values” candidates like Bill Brady and others might be thinking at this moment because their campaign logos and photos are displayed right above that aforementioned softcore pic," before pointing out that "Perhaps the author thought more people would pay attention to the posted rant by displaying that photograph, but it’s pretty much incomprehensible."

And while it might seem that Swiss is just cyber-squatting, there's the sticky issue of his role as the Political Director of the Chicago Republican Party, which he's listed as on the official site. Maybe Cook County Democrats could take a page out of Swiss's playbook and spiff up their site a little bit as well starting with the official shot of Joe Berrios sitting in his Big Chair.