“Joke” About Killing Obama Circulated By Top GOP Figure

Posted Oct 15, 2008 by William March

Updated Oct 15, 2008 at 04:09 PM

Al Austin, a veteran, high-level Republican fundraiser from Tampa, today sent an email to his list of his political contacts containing a joke that refers to the assassination of Barack Obama.

When asked about the email, Austin said it was a mistake and apologized, and that he wouldn’t knowingly have circulated it. He said he intended to send an apology and retraction to the same email list.

Austin said he forwarded the email to a list of his politicaly contacts without fully reading it.

The joke concerns a group of school children discussing the definition of “tragedy,” as opposed to “great loss” or “accident.” The punch line comes when one child says that if an airplane carrying Obama and his wife, Michelle, “was struck by a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens,” the event might be a tragedy, “because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss, and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”

Austin acknowledged sending the email to his list of political contacts, but said he forwarded it without fully reading it and didn’t know what it said. That list included at least two reporters.

According to the forwarding history on the email, it had been gone through at least two other individuals before being sent to Austin Tuesday.

Austin, a prominent real estate developer long known as one of the state’s leading Republican campaign fundraisers, has served in recent years as finance chairman for both the national and state Republican parties.