Chips Are Down

(Fox News) - Some Republicans are coming to the defense of GOP national committee chairman candidate Chip Saltsman, after he sent out a Christmas greeting to RNC members that included a CD with a song called "Barack the Magic Negro."

It was part of an album by conservative satirist Paul Shanklin and was first played on "The Rush Limbaugh Show" in May of 2007.

But Shanklin was drawing on a column from David Ehrenstein, a black gay columnist writing in The Los Angeles Times. He wrote the term "magic negro" was coined by sociologists to refer to a non-threatening African-American who "simply appears one day" to assuage white "guilt" over the role of slavery and racial segregation.

A number of Republicans are now coming to Saltsman's rescue. The chairman of the Maine Republican Party, Mark Ellis, told the Politico newspaper, "I had to ask, 'Boy, what's the big deal here?'"

Alabama Republican Committeeman Paul Reynolds says, "This is just people looking for something to make an issue of."

Ken Blackwell, who is seeking to become the first African-American GOP chairman, is also defending Saltsman. And, speaking on condition of anonymity, one RNC member says current Chairman Mike Duncan was wrong for condemning Saltsman's actions: "He screwed up big time by pandering to the national press on this."