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By LUCAS L. JOHNSON II
Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh is calling on Tennessee Republican leaders to renounce a former state GOP leader over a music parody of President-elect Barack Obama

Chip Saltsman, who managed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, is seeking the Republican National Committee chairmanship. He sent committee members a CD this Christmas with a 2007 song called “Barack the Magic Negro.”

The parody is sung to the music of “Puff, the Magic Dragon.” The song questions whether Obama is “authentically” black and says white voters wouldn’t have voted for him if he had been from “the hood.”

Naifeh on Monday called Saltsman’s action extremist and divisive and said he needs to be renounced.

“I think it’s an embarrassment to the state when someone sends something out like this,” said the Covington, Tenn., Democrat.

Saltsman has said that party leaders should stand up to criticism over sending out the song. He defended it as one of several “lighthearted political parodies” that have aired on conservative talk host Rush Limbaugh’s radio show.

Author Paul Shankin, the Memphis author of the musical parody, told The Commercial Appeal in Memphis that he isn’t surprised the song has gotten some people upset. He describes the song as political satire and says it’s supposed to be provocative.