As everyone knows by now, VA Gov. Ralph Northam found himself in a sticky wicket on Friday, when old photos of him in blackface surfaced. They came from 1984, when Northam was a student at East Virginia Medical School.

At first the guv was oh-so-sorry and groveled before Virginia voters, begging for forgiveness:

“Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive.” 

“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now.”

Everyone wondered: is Ralph Northam going to resign?

https://twitter.com/hodgetwins/status/1091488371904458752?s=11

Well, that was Friday. On Saturday, Northam held a bizarre press conference to explain that it wasn’t him in that blackface/KKK photo. Never mind that the yearbook page with the picture clearly reads “Ralph Shearer Northam” — someone mistakenly put it on his page. Yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket!

Who ya gonna believe? Northam or your lying eyes?

But then Northam admitted that he put on blackface once, as a participant in a 1984 talent show, when he did a Michael Jackson moonwalk imitation. But the governor, who remembered that he absolutely did not pose in that infamous photo, stumbled on Jackson’s name. He turned to his wife:

“I dressed up in a … what’s his name, the singer? Michael Jackson. Excuse me. That’s why I have Pam with me.”

He couldn’t recall the name of the most prominent pop star of the 1980’s but absolutely knew that wasn’t him on his yearbook page. Right. And bears don’t . . . well, you know.

Credit: Brand X Studio.

But at least he didn’t go all blackface for his performance, so there’s that:

“I used just a little bit of shoe polish to put on my cheeks and the reason I used a very little bit because – I don’t know if anyone’s ever tried that – you cannot get shoe polish off.”

Besides, Northam claimed, back in ’84 doing a little blackface was pretty “commonplace” at the time.

I can tell you that where I live in the Midwest, the practice certainly was not commonplace. But maybe it was at Northam’s East Virginia Medical School:

Another photo in the 1984 EVMS yearbook pictures a man who appears to be in blackface and dressed as a woman with the caption: "who ever thought Diana Ross would make it to Medical School!" https://t.co/ahpjoZhShu pic.twitter.com/0IVMHSthi1

— The Virginian-Pilot (@virginianpilot) February 2, 2019

Maybe Northam has never heard the advice: when you’re in a hole, stop digging!

Credit: tenor.com. 

Democrats are going into panic mode. Worried that Northam may be the kiss of death to their Presidential candidacies, Sens. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren called for Northam to step down. So did Nancy Pelosi, who wouldn’t talk about Northam’s support for late-term abortion. But she sure was appalled at the blackface:

The photo is racist and contrary to fundamental American values. I join my colleagues in Virginia calling on Governor Northam to do the right thing so that the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia can heal and move forward.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) February 2, 2019

And finally, VA Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax — who’s black — smelled blood in the water. On Saturday afternoon he threw Ralph Northam under the bus:

“While his career has been marked by service to children, soldiers, and constituents, I cannot condone the actions from his past that, at the very least, suggest suggest a comfort with Virginia’s darker history of white supremacy, racial stereotyping, and intimidation. . .” 

I hope Ralph Northam doesn’t cave to the political whims of his party. And you know why? Because they own this, and this is delicious Schadenfreude for the GOP. Democrats crusade on identity politics, eager to trash conservatives as racist bigots, whose president would love nothing more than to usher in an era of white supremacy.

Moreover, to be a perceived racist is a bigger affront to Democrats than the murder of unborn children. And, in their eyes, Ralph Northam’s 35 year old escapade in blackface is more horrendous than his support for late-term abortion and even infanticide.

That is sickness. And I hope Northam stays in office as a reminder of how extremely radical the Democratic Party has become.

Featured photo: cropped from Ben Watts @ flickr.com. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.