Last night I was up late reading the depositions in the wacky discrimination lawsuit against the Democratic Mayor of Kansas City, Mo, Mark Funkhouser, and his wife, Gloria Squitiro (the suit against the wife has apparently been settled).

The mayor was already in hot water with minority advocates for appointing a member of the Minuteman militia to city Parks Board, but the real problem in the office was apparently his wife. It seems the mayor's wife was constantly at the Mayor's office working as an unofficial "volunteer executive assistant."  But some (all) employees felt that Squitiro was an unwelcome and unhelpful presence and one filed a discrimination suit.  The allegations? 

• Squitiro "at least twice" called Ruth Bates, an African American female employee "Mammy;" and referred to her as "my token black." (Bates is the one filing the suit)
• Squitiro regularly called the other African American female employee, whose first name was Burnetta, "Bernie Mac."

More after the jump!

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I'm surprised that I couldn't find mention at TPM of Friday's WSJ editorial, by Karl Rove, praising Obama's economic team.  Unlike some of Rove's pre-election commentary, this is not just a few begrudging positive sentences about Obama amid a stream of fearmongering inuendo.  At first glance, in fact, the editorial, titled "Thanksgiving Cheer From Obama: He's assembled a first-rate economic team." seems to be a gushing endorsement of Obama's executive decisions and performance so far:

Mr. Obama's announcement of his economic team on Monday provided surprisingly positive clarity...

The National Economic Council director-designee, Larry Summers, is another solid pick...

Mr. Obama also named a respected monetary expert -- Christina Romer -- to head up his Council of Economic Advisors. On Tuesday he selected a first-rate thinker, Peter Orszag, to be director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget...

..with only mildly-worded criticisms:

The only troubling personnel note was Melody Barnes...

I imagine, however, that most people at TPM, knowing who wrote it, will see through to the nefarious intent behind the editorial.  It is only slightly more subtle than Rush Limbaugh's faux concern about the sexism displayed towards Hillary during the primary and to me it seems that Rove is among many rightwing mischief-makers making similar mischief since the election:  publically praising Obama and describing his cabinet picks as arch-conservatives to drive a wedge between Obama and the Left.  Along those same lines, the WSJ had another editorial last week "praising" Obama's decision to keep Gates as SecDef, calling it "an implicit endorsement of President Bush's 'surge' in Iraq" and claiming that Gates and Gen Jones "help Mr. Obama check the worst reflexes of his anti-antiterror base."  Strangely, they did not mention Gates' behind-the-scenes efforts to close Guantanamo. 

I do think that many of the conservatives and Republicans who endorsed Obama were sincere; while others may have just been jumping on the winning bandwagon; but am I alone in thinking that this fake praise is the day's tactic in the Rove/Rush GOP recovery plan?