Carl Paladino is Gross

My opinion that Carl Paladino of NY is not a well person isn't really related to his aberrant behavior fairly recently as a Trump campaign persona.  Oh heck no, I was following his very weird self back in 2010 when he was running for NY Governor as the GOP candidate.  He was quite obviously loathsome six years ago, so I don't find his current outburst all that astonishing.

Of course he still thinks using racist or sexist invective amusing and doesn't care who hears him use it. He didn't win as NY Governor in 2010, but he was a trusted campaign official in Trump's rise, right? That is a kind of validation, isn't it?

But his recent comments are really quite something else:

Mr. Paladino’s comments were published in Artvoice, a weekly Buffalo newspaper. They came in response to an open-ended feature in which local figures were asked about their hopes for 2017.

“Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford,” said Mr. Paladino, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010, making an apparent reference to the Hereford cattle breed. He said he hoped the disease killed the president.

Asked what he most wanted to see “go away” in the new year, Mr. Paladino — who has a reputation in New York political and business circles for speaking in an unfiltered manner reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s — answered, “Michelle Obama.”

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he said.

That is appalling and distinctively bigoted. I understand not all Trump followers might recognize it as being quite the disgusting hate speech it is.  But it is flagrantly bigoted. It isn't really my business to suggest the Trump near and dear remove him from their circle--oh hell no! But I think they should explain why he was in their inner circle for a wee while. This guy. This obvious and assholish actual guy. Whose opinions would not have ever been unknown to them.