More Youthful Republican Folly

CNN: Presidential candidate John McCain stood outside the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain 40 years ago, and told a crowd he was wrong to initially oppose making Dr. King's birthday a state holiday in Arizona.

[Note: I haven't found a transcript, so I can't say whether "initially" is McCain's or CNN's way of describing the first six years of his life as an elected official. While we're at it we might as well note that McCain didn't simply oppose the creation of a state holiday; he supported Evan Mecham rescinding it in 1987. Arizona finally got around to reversing itself again in 1989, after that act had given it a very public black eye, which it decided was more black than it cared to be attached to.]

New York Times: Mr. McCain was faced with a scattering of boos when said he had erred in the past when he voted as a freshman in Congress against the Jan. 20 holiday celebrating King.
“Even in this most idealistic of nations, we do not always take kindly to being reminded of what more we can do, or how much better we can be, or who else can be included in the promise of America,” Mr. McCain said. “We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona.”

Y'know, Senator, in 1983 the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a more distant event than the vote you got just now around to apologizing for is today. The March on Washington and I Have A Dream had already marked their twentieth anniversary. Dr. King had stopped marching, speaking, and breathing over fifteen years previously. How long did you need to figure it out? What was it, exactly, that opened your eyes in the intervening six years?

Ordinarily I'd at least give a bit of credit to someone for facing a hostile crowd and owning up to past misdeeds, but in this case I'd've respected you more if you just shut up, or even if you'd have recited the crap about how we just had too many gosh-darn holidays as it was. I mean, if that was such an important principle to you at the time that it sorta blinded you to Dr. King's accomplishments or the racist murderousness of his opposition, then it seems like it might merit a nod even at this late date.  Maybe what you should be explaining now is why you tried to hide a lack of appreciation for Dr. King's work behind the transparently racist faux concern over our lavish Federal holiday schedule.  

Yahoo News: The following is being issued by the Democratic National Committee:

...In fact, in 1983 McCain did something not even Dick Cheney did: he voted in Congress against a federal holiday in honor of Dr. King, which President Reagan later signed into law.

Uh, look, I'm all for contrasting his record with the pathetic Cheney's, but Reagan opposed the King holiday his entire political life, and signed on because it was veto proof. These people don't deserve credit for eventually "coming around"; they deserve to scatter like cockroaches every time a light gets switched on over their sordid doings.