NC: Alcoholic Beverage Commission head resigns after circulating racist email

The state's top liquor regulator, Doug Fox, is now the former top liquor regulator, as Governor Beverly Perdue demanded and received Fox's resignation after newspapers sent her a copy of the racist illustration Fox was shooting around on email.

The e-mail included an altered photo of the White House that turned the South Lawn into an enormous watermelon patch. The phrase, "There goes the neighborhood ..." was printed above the photo.

The e-mail was sent from Fox's law firm address Nov. 14 -- 10 days after Barack Obama was elected president. The message, which had been forwarded multiple times by others before reaching Fox, contained no text other than the subject line, "how true."

..."I have accepted Doug Fox's letter of resignation," Perdue said. "E-mails and images of this nature are offensive and unacceptable."

Fox, who was paid $110,000 last year, offered to stay on and help his successor settle in. Perdue, who will appoint a new chairman, declined. "The resignation will be effective immediately," said David Kochman, Perdue's communications director.

Of course the obvious question is why do some public officials think that sending out stuff like this is not going to blow up in their faces? As I've said before, never, ever send "humor" around like this unless you are 100% certain that the all of the recipients of your missive share your rancid, bigoted sense of humor. In his case the recipient of the email was a lobbyist Bill Hester (who represents Southern Wine & Spirits, a major liquor distributor). He declined to speak to the media.

Fox also earns bonus points for *ssclown stupidity -- how could he not have seen or heard about the story about how this very same knee-slapping racist image was emailed around by Los Alamitos, California Mayor Dean Grose -- and how it cost him his job? I mean it wasn't as if it didn't make national news at the time...

You can see a copy of Fox's unapologetic resignation letter here.

Related:

* CA: Orange County bigot eruption - Los Alamitos mayor sends out racist email