Eschaton

Digby sez to John:

John -

Most people don't recoil in disgust at the sight of an intelligent civil rights leader like Wade Henderson following up on a pledge from Senator Frist who said in his acceptance speech:

"We must dedicate ourselves to healing those wounds of division that have been reopened so prominently in the last few weeks," Frist said in his acceptance speech.

"I committed to work with him [Daschle], to work with members of the Democratic caucus, and I should also add independents as well, to make this Congress . . . to be one that is positive, that brings people together and that is productive."

I saw Wade Henderson on the news today and he wasn't offensive in any way. He spoke in measured tones, merely setting forth his priorities and asking for a hearing. He had some very high praise for President Bush's remarks in Philadelphia in which he said:

We must also rise to a second challenge facing our country. This great and prosperous land must become a single nation of justice and opportunity. We must continue our advance toward full equality for every citizen, which demands that a guarantee of civil rights for all.
Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong. Recent comments by (Mississippi) Senator (Trent) Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. He has apologized, and rightly so. Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals.

And the founding ideals of our nation and, in fact, the founding ideals of the political party I represent, was and remains today the equal dignity and equal rights of every American.

And this is the principle that guides my administration: We will not and we must not rest until every person, of every race, believes in the promise of America because they see it in their own eyes, with their own eyes, and they live it and feel it in their own lives.

That you and others react with such extreme emotional (and rather obviously crude) rhetoric to something as innocuous as black leaders responding to these words in a serious way is the very reason that the Republicans are in deep shit on this issue. Wade Henderson doesn't sound like the shrill, unreasonable, mau-mauing overreactor. You do.