Wisconsin Democrat Vows to Hand Out KKK Hoods at GOP State Convention

May 2nd, 2014 4:15 PM

Just imagine, there are actually people out there who see this as amusing and not obscene. And yes, they watch lots of MSNBC.

It can be stated with a fair degree of certainty that a liberal Democrat has gone beyond the pale when other Democrats ... in Wisconsin ... condemn his conduct. That's the case after the latest bizarre stunt involving Brett Hulsey, a state representative "running a long-shot campaign for governor" against Republican Mary Burke, according to the Associated Press.

Hulsey is planning to hand out the KKK-style hoods, which he made with curtain cloth on his daughter's sewing machine, at the Republican state convention this weekend to condemn what he says are GOP "racist policies." (The photo in this post shows one of the hoods and was tweeted by Hulsey).

"It's a Wisconsin Republican Party hat," Hulsey said, as quoted by the AP. "And people can interpret it any way they want."

The specific policies he opposes? Photo ID at the polls, cuts to school funding and a proposed law "making it more difficult to force schools to remove American Indian mascots," the AP reports -- all clearly indistinguishable from lynching a man in the middle of the night while his family watches in horror or bombing a church and killing children.

In a shocking twist, Hulsey has a "history of outlandish behavior," AP reporter Scott Bauer duly notes. Hulsey once "contemplated" bringing a musket to the floor of the State House to oppose GOP support for concealed carry laws. A legislative staffer told police "she feared for her safety" because Hulsey brought a box-cutter to the office, the AP reports. Then there was the time last year that Hulsey pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct citation after "flipping a 9-year-old boy off an inner tube" and "taking a picture of the child."

On the bright side, even Democrats are now distancing themselves from Hulsey. "We take serious issue with the policies pursued by the Republicans that disproportionately affect people of color, but this type of behavior has no place in the public dialogue," said state Democratic chairman Mike Tate, according to the AP.