Hullabaloo

Saturday, August 02, 2008

 
Keeping It Unreal

by digby

I was listening to McCain's Urban institute event yesterday (during one of the many marathon discussions of "Obama played the race card") and thought I had misheard something that he said. It turns out I didn't mishear it --- he just lied his ass off (or has Alzheimer's like Reagan.) This is unbelievable.

Someone in the audience asked:

"And can you elaborate when you said you fought for equal rights for your entire life, what specifically you've done focusing on improving the lives of African Americans?"

His answer:

"I am proud of that record, from fighting for the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday in my state . . . "

Well, sort of. This came up just a few months ago and McCain is being very, very misleading. Here's John Amato back in April:

Check out John McCain trying to wiggle his way out of the fact that he voted against MLK day back in 1983. John McCain was born in 1936. He was how old, how old—hmmmm—let’s see…maybe 47 years old I think.He was almost 50 years old and he voted against MLK day! You see he needed just a few more years to figure out the impact MLK had on our society. He certainly can’t say in this statement that he was young and inexperienced. Nope, he has to give the impression that he was young and inexperienced since it was his first year in Congress—so he studied and learned and studied and learned until it dawned on him. And then he suddenly realized he made a big mistake.

McCain: I voted in my first, I think it was my first year in congress against then… I began to learn and I studied and people talked to me and I not supported it but I fought very hard in my home state of Arizona for recognition against a Governor who was against my own party.

And what else did he say?

“I had not been involved in the issue. I had come from being in the military to running for Congress in a state that did not have a very large African American population and it had not been in issue. It just simply had not been.”

In a February 2000 interview with ABC News, McCain said his initial opposition to a holiday was based on his belief that “it was not necessary to have another federal holiday, that it cost too much money, that other presidents were not recognized.”

Here's a report from Jake Tapper on the same topic:

Tomorrow Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by speaking in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of King's assassination.

He will no doubt sound a bit different than he did in April 1987, when McCain was interviewed by USA Today about his five and a half years as a P.O.W.

Could you keep up with what was going on in the world? He was asked.

"They never gave us any meaningful news," McCain said. "They told us the day that Martin Luther King was shot, they told us the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot, but they never bothered to tell us about the moon shot. So it was certainly selected news."

Surely the John McCain of 2008 would not hold that the assassinations of King and Kennedy were not "meaningful."

Here are the facts on McCain and Martin Luther King Day. It's a very *spotty* record, to say the least:

* FACT: McCain Supported Gov. Evan Mecham’s Decision In 1987 To Rescind Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, “In a vote likely to haunt him for the rest of his public career, McCain voted against 1983 legislation establishing the third Monday in January as the federal holiday marking King’s birthday. Back home in Arizona, he supported Gov. Evan Mecham’s decision in 1987 to rescind an executive order creating a state holiday for King, but later reversed his position.” [Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/16/08]

He eventually came around in 1990 and backed it. 1990! He was only 54 years old when he began his crusade for civil rights --- 23 years after Martin Luther King was shot. What a record.

The crusade continues to this day:

McCain, in response to a question, said affirmative action was "in the eye of the beholder." He did not mention that he supports an anti-affirmative action referendum on the ballot in Arizona.

*Note: No one should construe this as a criticism of McCain's heroic service in Vietnam or infer that he isn't entirely color blind and above any kind of racial bias. Neither should this be seen as any kind of attack on him for his age or an accusation that he isn't always a straight talker of unwavering principles. He has a heroic and unimpeachable character and I would never imply otherwise.



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digby 8/02/2008 12:00:00 PM |