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George W. Bush Celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday George W. Bush celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday by giving Charles Pickering a recess appointment as an appeals court judge: Salon: Charles Pickering... his dismal record on race begins with a law school article he wrote defending anti-miscegenation statutes. In the 1960s... "Pickering worked to support segregation, attack civil rights advocates who sought to end Jim Crow, and back those who opposed national civil rights legislation, above all the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Or, in the words of a public statement he signed in 1967, Pickering wanted to preserve 'our southern way of life,' and he bitterly blamed civil rights workers for stirring up 'turmoil and racial hatred' in the South." In the 1970s, as a state senator, he voted to appropriate money to the the Sovereignty Commission, a group dedicated to resisting desegregation... The Republican Party's commitment to civil rights and equal opportunity for all Americans is unshakeable. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Say no more, say no more. God knows there are many reasons in America today not to be a Democrat. But they pale to nothing compared to this reason not to be a Republican. UPDATE: The smart and incisive Lawrence Solum misses the point, writing "Charles Pickering has received a recess appointment from President Bush.... This is, of course, a very significant development in the confirmation wars--a naturally retaliatory move by the President for the Senate Democrat's use of the filibuster against several of his nominees." A development in the "confirmation wars" is announced on some other weekend, any other weekend, a weekend that is not that of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. This is something different: the result of somebody inside the White House asking the question, "What can we do around Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday to remind the Base that if you don't like Black people, the Republican Party is your natural home?" _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
