Pathetic Family Tree of the Week

First, the son:
After being indicted on June 19th on federal cocaine charges, Thomas Ravenel was suspended from his position as South Carolina Treasurer and resigned as the State Chairman for Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.

Ravenel is accused of purchasing nearly 500 grams of cocaine with the intent to distribute in late 2005, U.S. Attorney Reggie Lloyd said. This charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a fine of up to $1 million.

Next, the father:
Even after his son's recent legal troubles, Arthur Ravenel was included on a list of regional chairpersons for Giuliani's campaign in South Carolina.

In January 2000, the elder Ravenel (and Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives at the time) addressed a crowd of several thousand supporters on the steps of the South Carolina statehouse to advocate flying the Confederate flag. During this event, Ravenel asked the cheering crowd: "Can you believe that there are those who think that the General Assembly of South Carolina is going to knuckle under, roll over and do the bidding of that organization known as the National Association for Retarded People?" (Ravenel was actually referring to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I am not sure which is more depressing: Ravenel's insult of the NAACP or the fact that he probably does not realize NAACP would not be an appropriate acronym for the "National Association for Retarded People".) Ravenel then stated that he had apologized to the mentally challenged for comparing those individuals to members of the NAACP: "I didn't apologize to the NAACP. I apologized to the retarded folks of the world for equating them to the national NAACP." Trying to further explain his comments to The Post and Courier in Charleston, SC, Avenel continued by saying that "It was a slip of the tongue. I have never said the NAACP was retarded. I made a rhetorical slip and they want to lynch me for it." (Nice choice of the word "lynch", especially considering the fact that Avenel was discussing the NAACP.) Last but not least, during his tenure as a member of the U.S. Congress, Ravenel also commented about white committee chairpersons operating on "black time". Ravenel admitted this term translated into being fashionably late.