Virginia GOP emails zombie collage featuring Obama shot in head

Virginia Republicans spent Monday in damage control after the state party was forced to condemn an email sent around to some of its supporters featuring a zombie collage that depicted President Barack Obama shot in the head.

In what's clearly a Halloween-themed mailer, an image of a zombie horde from The Walking Dead comic books, several other pieces of zombie art including a photo of Obama supporters and a jack-o-lantern are spaced apart by the defaced portraits of President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Obama's render, a modification of his campaign's famous "Hope" poster by artist Shepard Fairey, is seen zombified, making him appear severely wounded. There's a bullet hole in his forehead, and his brain is exposed.

Pelosi does not appear zombified, but her facial features are inexplicably deformed.

Both bizarre portraits were part of a mass email sent out by the Loudoun County GOP, which immediately became the subject of a post by the Republican blog Too Conservative.

"I am no fan of Barack Obama, but putting up a photo of him as a zombie with a bullet hole in his head????????????" the poster wrote. "Like him or not he is the legitimately elected the President of the United States and Commander in Chief of our armed services in a time of war. THIS IS DISGUSTING AND SHAMEFUL. Someone should send this to the US Secret Service."

The email was intended to solicit attendance at a local fair. "We are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy," it reads.

The Loudoun Republicans did not create either image, they simply pulled them off the Internet.

Responding to the controversy, the statewide GOP condemned Loudoun County's actions in no uncertain terms.

"The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever," Pat Mullins, chairman of Virginia's Republican Party, told The Washington Post. "The Republican Party of Virginia condemns the image and its use in the strongest possible terms."

Now, if only they could find some braaaaains.