‘...he looks just like Curious George’

And the award for the most egregiously racist Obama campaign contribution goes to… Mike Norman, owner of Mulligan's Bar and Grill in Marietta, Ga., who's been selling t-shirts depicting Barack Obama as a banana-peeling monkey. Thankfully, Norman picked a monkey - beloved children's book icon Curious George - that will likely inspire a lawsuit from its owner, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. We can only hope. Norman should also win an award for this year's most transparently false denial: About a dozen protestors rallied against the shirts Tuesday afternoon, condemning them as racist and asking Norman to stop selling them. Norman acknowledged the imagery's Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey. "We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him … the hairline, the ears -- he looks just like Curious George." (Hat tip to Frank Schneider.)