True colors: Repubs don't care about civil rights...

[ProSense]

unless they need to use the cause to promote themselves in speeches. Otherwise they denounce it when it's used as an issue against them, or when no one is looking:

DNC: McCain's Baggage Taints MLK Day Celebration

1/16/2006 6:11:00 PM

To: State Desk

Contact: Luis Miranda of the Democratic National Committee, 202-863-7131; Web: http://www.democrats.org

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a release from the Democratic National Committee:

Tonight, as most Americans celebrate and honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., Republican Senator and Presidential hopeful John McCain will bring controversy to the Spartanburg Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration in South Carolina, where he is scheduled to speak. Ironically, McCain is represented in South Carolina by notorious strategist Richard Quinn, best known for founding a neo-confederate magazine and calling the creation of a federal holiday honoring Dr. King "vicious" and "profane, as his South Carolina spokesperson.

During the 2000 Presidential primary, McCain was badly beaten in Spartanburg, which may explain this special early visit.

"Sen. John McCain owes the people of South Carolina, and indeed every American, an explanation," said Democratic National Committee Spokesman Luis Miranda. "Today is a day to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not a day to play politics. If Sen. McCain believes, as do most Americans, in the principles that Dr. King fought and died for, how on Earth can he explain his failure to fire a man who has derided Dr. King's legacy and assailed the celebration of this important national holiday?"

more...

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=59318

Bush did the feel good thing in his SOTU and Cheney who voted against MLK holiday did the feel good standing ovation thing:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=357079&mesg_id=357079


Mary Matlin calls civil rights leaders racists:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=371591&mesg_id=371591

Posted 12/12/2002 7:31 PM Updated 12/13/2002 11:50 AM

Over 30 years, Lott brushed with race issues before

WASHINGTON (AP) — Trent Lott led the fight to restore Jefferson Davis' U.S. citizenship and once suggested the Confederate leader would support the Republican Party if alive today. He voted against expanding the Civil Rights Act, and opposed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, saying there were other heroes "more deserving."

Trent Lott's past is now coming to the forefront as the controversy surrounding his comments last week continues.
By Terry Ashe, AP

And he supported segregation — which he now repudiates — when as a college student he watched armed U.S. marshals escort the first black student to the University of Mississippi. He also advocated keeping blacks out of his fraternity.

In 30 years of public service, the Senate's top Republican has mixed a fierce devotion to Southern history, including the Confederacy, with a political ideology that federal legislation should not try to rectify past discriminations or wrongs.


more...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-12-12-lott-segregation-past_x.htm

And the media shill extols the Republican cause:

Jonah Goldberg:

One sorry mess of a party

AND FOR ANOTHER week, the Democrats managed to hold themselves hostage to, well, themselves.

Snip...

McCain says Obama promised to join in a bipartisan lobbying reform effort but reneged in favor of backing the Democrats' more partisan effort. So McCain — the dashboard saint of bipartisan reform efforts — turned Obama into epistolary roadkill.

In an archly sarcastic letter, McCain apologized for not realizing that Obama was more interested in "self-interested partisan posturing," adding that "I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics, I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical gloss."

snip...

And all this happened by Wednesday — and leaves out Jimmy Carter's shabby and even mildly ghoulish exploitation of Coretta Scott King's funeral.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-goldberg9feb09,1,7787662.column?coll=la-travel-headlines&track=mostemailedlink

[NMDemDist2]

1. ...and they haven't since Lincoln was President n/t