Last year I referred to Randell Shafer, a former
congressional candidate from St. Clair Shores, as the Dave Agema of Macomb
County.

Shafer, a three-time loser at the ballot box, was quite the online bigot in 2014, with shockingly crude posts sprinkled throughout long
Facebook fights. But Shafer has been quiet lately and it appears that another
right-wing Republican gadfly, former Sterling Heights councilman Paul Smith,
has stepped up to the megaphone as the new Agema of Macomb.

Smith also happens to be a candidate for mayor in
Sterling Heights, Michigan’s fourth-largest city. He is known for his outbursts
at council meetings and his angry intolerance, including holding aloft protest
signs denigrating “wetb**ks” and the “f*gs.”

The latest information about the outrageously outspoken
Mr. Smith comes from the Sterling Heights Local Politics page on Facebook.
Someone known online as “Malcom McEasy” posted a 2010 email, purportedly
written by Smith, during the big debate over the mosque near Ground Zero in New
York City.

Here is the email message:

 

Agema
I suspect that even Agema might find that language a tiny bit
offensive. Of course, Agema is the infamous homophobic, racist, Islamophobe from west Michigan who refuses to step down from his Republican National Committee seat
despite calls for his resignation from state and national GOP officials.
Smith
As for Smith, he’s not only running for mayor, he is part
of a like-minded slate of candidates for the Sterling Heights City Council.

In response, a Twitter account was created, “Paul Smith &
Cronies,” that features numerous videos of Smith and his allies, including a
rant by his wife, Moira, who berates her husband’s critics and lists this among
Smith’s attributes: “He doesn’t beat his family.” A 2014 video shows Mr. Smith
loudly defending a longtime Macomb County shouter at council meetings, Donald
Lobsinger, who long ago was labeled a white supremacist by his critics.

The one-term councilman (2011-13) has had several run-ins
with the Sterling Heights police over minor matters, including a 2013 episode
in which he snatched a pro-millage sign from the lawn of a local car dealer and
went inside to berate the management in front of customers.

A week before his election loss, in October 2013, Smith
apparently was belligerent after he was pulled over for erratically changing
lanes and he ignored the officer’s command to stay inside his vehicle.

And just recently, on May 7, Smith was escorted out of
City Hall by police after he reportedly began shouting profanities at Mayor
Mike Taylor.

His vile political views first emerged during a 2009 tea party
rally in Troy, where Smith held aloft signs with an image of former Michigan
Gov. Jennifer Granholm with a noose around her neck and President Barack Obama
with a spear through his skull. A video of Smith carrying the signs received media coverage years later.
Mr. McEasy, who is part of the concerted effort to
deflate Smith’s election chances, wrote this on the Sterling Heights Local Politics
page about the above email: “Oh… and before anyone tries to claim it wasn’t
him, and that someone is simply confusing him with some other twisted racist
homophobic xenophobe, this link is from the Macomb County government, proving
that this was, indeed, his e-mail address at the time… http://www.macombcountymi.gov/clerks…/…/elec-2010-PD-Rep.pdf”

I have no idea what the reference to “crickballs” in the
email address means. And, by the way: “coupe’ de grass” … is that a two-seater
car made out of hemp?

Only in Macomb County.

 

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