A Pemberton GOP committeeman came under heavy scrutiny last week after it was discovered he posted a slogan linking presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama to O.J. Simpson on what was called "The Official Website of the Pemberton Township Republicans."The slogan, "Obama Loves America like O.J. Loved Nicole," referring to retired NFL star and his late ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, was denounced by many as racist.

Simpson was tried and acquitted for the murder of Brown and her boyfriend Ronald Goldman in 1994, but was found liable for their wrongful deaths in civil court in 1997.

When asked about the intended meaning of the slogan on the morning of Tuesday, July 8, committeeman and web master of the site, Ed Kuck, of Pemberton, told the Community News via email, "O.J. Simpson did not love Nicole and Obama does not appear to love America, at least according to the comments made about him and his pastor."

Kuck was apparently referring to the recent fervor over perceived anti-American comments made by Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

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Ann Marie Emmons, Republican Chairperson for Pemberton Township and chairperson for Sen. John McCain's campaign in Burlington County, said later that day that she had not been aware of the slogan's presence on the site and that she intended to ask Kuck to remove it as soon as possible.

The slogan was removed from the site Tuesday evening and the entire site was pulled on Wednesday, but not before it drew attention from the Associated Press who distributed the story to news outlets throughout the country.

It is not clear if the site was intentionally removed or if it was overwhelmed by curious web surfers and media.

Emmons told CBS3, "It's a crude comment; it's certainly not what we stand for."

Emmons said the site was created in 2006 and was used for setting up events and meeting schedules for the club's two dozen members, but was not the official site of the Pemberton Township Republicans.

"The content on the Web site is reprehensible. It's not a tactic of Burlington County Republicans," said Bill Layton, chairman of the Burlington County Republican Committee. "I denounce it. I think it's wrong."

"I applaud Bill for stepping up and denouncing it in these circumstances," said Rick Perr, Layton's Democratic counterpart. "But it was the permissive nature of the matter which essentially gave him license to believe that the banner would be acceptable."

Kuck told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he had found the graphic on another site and posted it "as a joke."

"Unfortunately, it seems like this type of gutter politics is becoming a regular part of the playbook for the Burlington County Republicans," Layton said. "It's the culture that allows something like that to be published in the first place, and the organization has to take responsibility for individuals acting on its behalf."

Recently elected as a Burlington County committeeman, Kuck published the Obama-Simpson slogan last month on http://homewebs.net/pem while updating the site with pictures from Sen. John McCain's recent Town Hall Meeting held on Burlington County College's Pemberton campus.

Burlington County Republicans reiterated that the Web site was privately operated by Kuck and never served as the official Web site of the township GOP.

Kuck could not be reached for any further comments.

A GOP source, who requested his name not be published, told this paper's sister publication, The Trentonian, that Kuck "went into hiding" to escape the national furor that resulted from the slogan.

"I find it totally offensive," Robert Jones, former president of the Pemberton Township Republican Club, said in response to the slogan. "I've been ousted from the Republican Party because I didn't agree with the way they were moving. If I was in control, that never would have happened."

Claudia Storicks, the current leader of the Pemberton Township GOP could not be reached for comment.

After the story was distributed online, many readers commented on various Web sites, and their scrutiny was equally myriad. Some thought the statement was racist, others thought it simply didn't make any sense.

Others agreed with the statement.

One poster on the Free Republic forum stated "O.J. did love Nicole before he murdered her. There's no evidence Obama has ever loved America, but there sure is enough evidence that he wants to murder everything it stands for."

Host Dan Abrams mentioned the AP story on the July 9 episode of Verdict on MSNBC, twice repeating Kuck's excuse about the slogan being a simple joke with marked sarcasm.

Pointing out a Jan. 6, 2005 column by Ann Coulter titled "Liberals Love America Like O.J. Loved Nicole," a Democratic Underground poster said, "Good old repubs. Not only are they racists, they're unoriginal racists."