Now *That’s* Twisting MLK’s Legacy

You know who needs to really, really shut up? People who 1)are crying rivers of crocodile tears about how the friends and family of a civil rights leader comport themselves at their funeral although they’ve never met, and 2)could care less about segregationist sympathizers being appointed to the federal courts. In Wallace we can see many of the manifestations of the racism of the modern Republican Party: he helped Trent “we never would have had all these problems if only an apartheid President had won in 1948” Lott defend Bob Jones University, as an aid to Lott tried to keep inspectors out of Mississippi prisons, clerked for William “Plessy was right and should be upheld” Rehnquist, and he would replace Charles “if I have to do grossly unethical things to stop cross-burners from being prosecuted to the full extent of the law, I’ll do ’em!” Pickering. I think it’s also pretty safe to say that Jeff “The Klan would be OK if they didn’t smoke pot” Sessions will support him.

And the punchline: Pickering, who “penned a 1959 law review article that showed legislators how to tighten Mississippi’s ban on interracial marriage,” was given a recess appointment by the man who was so, so unfairly put upon at CSK’s funeral on…MLK’s birthday. A nudge is as good as a wink to a blind segregationist, know what I mean, know what I mean.

So, if I understand correctly, to delicate modern Republican sensibilities, friends, family and allies of Coretta Scott King paying tribute to the things she consistently fought for is beyond the pale of civilized discourse, but appointing a protege of a Senator who was expressing nostalgia for Jim Crow in 2002 and who fought to help said Senator fight for segregationist universities–a beautiful, loving tribute!

Seriously, who cares what these clowns think about anything, let alone funerals of people they’ve never met?

(Cross-posted at Sisyphus Shrugged.)