Columnist Jokes Sports Editors 'Whiter Than Newt Gingrich's Fourth of July Barbecue'

Via Romenesko, we learn that syndicated sports columnist/humorist Norman Chad was decrying the unbearable whiteness of sports section editors, but he encapsulated it with a political wisecrack: "We're whiter than Newt Gingrich's Fourth of July barbecue." (The column ran in the Washington Post on Monday.)

Since this is an attempt at humor, it's doubtful that Chad is trying to be factual, as if he has actually witnessed a Gingrich barbecue. But this is an odd joke, considering Gingrich has long been very Jack-Kempian in his reaching out to black audiences, supporting a Martin Luther King holiday and sanctions against apartheid-era South Africa in the 1980s, for example. Then there's his endorsements of black Republican candidate Dylan Glenn for Congress in his home state of Georgia. Are the liberals running out of easy GOP "bigot" targets?

Political wisecracks are not completely unknown to readers of Mr. Chad, even if they're much less common than his ex-wife jokes. After the so-called "festival of hate" GOP convention in 1992, Chad, then with the WashPost, salted his weekend NFL picks with convention-bashing quips:

"Steelers at Oilers (10 1/2): Houston’s recent practices disrupted by debris (mostly discarded venom spewed forth by Pat Buchanan) left over from Republican National Convention in Astrodome. Pick: Steelers...
Rams at Bills (11): Citing 'family values,’ Rams Coach Chuck Knox announced that all rushing plays this week will be run 'to the extreme right.’ Pick: Bills."