WP: Symbolic Lynching Resolution Forced Concrete Political Choice

[Pirate Smile]

By Terry M. Neal
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; 8:12 AM

There's not much these days that the two parties in Washington can rally around, as evidenced by the increasingly shrill tone here. You might think that one thing on which everyone in both parties could agree would be a resolution apologizing for the Senate's failure, over many decades, to make it a federal crime for racists to hunt black people like animals and hang them from trees.

When the Senate passed just such a resolution last week, 21 senators had not signed on as co-sponsors. Three of those 21 were Democrats, who added their names the next day. Seven Republicans also signed on after the vote, leaving 11 Senators -- all Republicans -- who have yet to sign on as co-sponsors. Because Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) opted for a voice vote instead of a roll call vote, and the resolution passed with only a few senators actually in the chamber. For supporters of the resolution, led by Sens. George Allen (R-Va.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.), that elevated the importance of having all 100 members of the Senate sign on as co-sponsors, because it would officially put the support of each member into the record.


Left-leaning columnists, pundits and bloggers have taken the story and run with it. They've all noted that the missing Republican names underscore, at a minimum, the GOP's lack of respect for African Americans.

"Who the hell, in this day and age, is against a resolution condemning LYNCHING!" blogs Rising Hegemon. Meanwhile, AMERICAblog is running its "Latest list of Republican pro-lynching Senators."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300465.html

[Pirate Smile]

1. Here is more

"I called a senior Republican official in Washington and was initially given the party line: The bill passed unanimously by voice vote. There was no opposition. Any senator who opposed it could have moved to take it off the unanimous consent calendar.

Then this person called back, insisting on anonymity to say, "Yes, in reality, this sort of thing does make it difficult for us. There is some frustration, yes."

-snip-
Symbolic politics is Ronald Reagan launching his presidential re-election campaign by extolling the virtues of states rights in Philadelphia, Miss., where Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen killed three civil rights workers in 1964.

Symbolic politics is the "white hands" ad that former senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) ran against African American opponent Harvey Gantt in 1990. Symbolic politics is George W. Bush going to speak at Bob Jones University in the 2000 presidential election campaign.